By Karan Shah Launch vehicle I will make my debut in the biopic titled Prithipal Singh. I play Prithipal who was a Penalty Corner Specialist with the Indian Hockey team in the golden era of Indian Hockey. Casting coup Associate director Mohneesh Kalyan noticed me on one of the episodes of CID and recommended me to his team. Writer and Executive Producer Sundeep Misra and producer-director Babita Puri saw my stills on Google after which they called me and cast me for the role. Stepping stone I come from a middle class family in Bihar, but I had the privilege of studying in a premier school like Welham in Dehradun. While I pursued Zoology (Hons.) and then an MBA, I also did a three month acting course at Barry John’s IMAGO and participated in a few plays performed by his group, Theatre Action Group. In Mumbai, as part of my firm — Strictly Speaking, I’ve been a Dialogue Coach on projects like Ishqiya, Udaan, 7 Khoon Maaf, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Aurangzeb, The Shaukeens and now Fitoor. I even coached Vidya Balan, Arshad Warsi, Naseeruddin Shah, Adil Husain, Rajat Barmecha, Kalki Koechlin, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Lisa Haydon and Aditya Roy Kapur there. As an actor, I also played the lead in Vasant Nath’s short film, Shanu Taxi and in Saurabh Kumar’s Handover, an independent digital film before Yash Raj Films Television series Powder. It was a fabulous start with YRF TV’s path-breaking content. I’ll always be thankful to writer-director Atul Sabharwal for considering me for a narcotics cop’s part in Powder, and casting director Abhimanyu Ray for the lead role in Khotey Sikkey. Then came CID, where I played an officer and now, Prithipal Singh. First Shot The first sequence for Prithipal Singh was a montage of my character seeking God’s blessings before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Shot in a gurdwara, it was serene, shooting a silent sequence. The takeaway You learn on every assignment, but Prithipal Singh, being a biopic, gave me an opportunity to explore a full fledged role. It gave me scope to build a character's graph, from being a child who witnessed the partition to growing up to play for the Indian Hockey team in his 20s and 30s, to later becoming a professor in his 40s, and finally getting murdered at 51. Stumbling block Stumbling blocks exist in all aspects of life. For the film, I had only seven days to learn to speak Hindi in a Punjabi accent, practice hockey, learn how to ride a Bullet bike and more. I didn’t even know to ride a normal bike earlier. Also, since not much is known about this hockey great, for research, all I could do was fall back on was the script. So it was difficult, but nothing out of the ordinary. I conquered all these hurdles and needless to say, it was a great experience! Role Model Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Manoj Bajpai and Aditya Srivastav; all their films influenced my decision to become an actor. Today there are so many professionals in this industry who’re outsiders and have made a mark by doing some very good work. All of them inspire me. Future projects Prithipal Singh releases in February 2015 after which my second project is Delhi Khabar, written and directed by Adeeb Rais. I play a young professor in this suspense film. It’s a youth-centric film and should hit the theaters by April 2015.
