Adarsh Gourav on life after The White Tiger: ‘I can’t sit and gloat about one performance for a long time’

 

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Adarsh’s new Audible series Desi Down Under, also starring Prajakta Koli and Taaruk Raina, released last week. The series follows three hopeful 20-somethings from Mangalore who cross the ocean to learn surf-lifesaving skills at stunning Coogee Beach in Australia.

About exploring different platforms to exercise his skills, Adarsh says, “I have done a little bit of audio before this. I have done Sandman and a couple of other things with Audible as well. I am fairly new to this space, what really excited me was the story where three friends travel to another country and I resonated with it because these three characters come from a small town in Mangalore and going to Australia, to a big city there. It is pretty much what I actually went through when I moved from Jamshedpur to Mumbai. Just the excitement and nervousness of being in a new city that you know nothing about, the kind of cultural shock that you get, it’s so difficult. So, ya, I just picked up from my own life and then the story is written so well by Mithila Gupta and directed by Mantra Mugdh, everything about this show is very relatable.”

 

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Adarsh says this story was especially relatable because he, himself, migrated from Jamshedpur to Mumbai, the city of dream. “I was thirteen when I moved from Jamshedpur to Mumbai as my father got transferred. One year later, after I shifted to Mumbai, I happened to audition for My Name Is Khan and I got it, we shot in 2009 and the film released in 2010. I shot for it when I was fourteen, fifteen years ago.”

He calls himself an accidental actor. “Acting for me was never intended occupation, it was more accidental. I was always interested in telling stories but I never knew what I could make of it because it was more of a hobby than anything else. I’d always like to describe things in detail a lot but I never thought that would eventually culminate into (professional) acting, it was purely accidental. It was only when I was 21-22 that I started taking it seriously and I went and trained at the drama school in Mumbai to become an actor. Before that it was just more of a hobby that I would do on the side to make money and use that for my music.”

 

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Adarsh then revealed how it was filmmaker Anura Kashyap who first spotted the actor in him and suggested that he should pursue acting seriously. Adarsh shared, “Acting was more to fuel my career as a musician, the only reason I was acting on the side, but I remember working on a short film with Anurag Kashyap. He said that I should be taking up acting more seriously, that’s when I gave it a second thought that maybe this is what needs to be given priority.”

The 28-year-old actor will soon be seen in Kho Gaye Hum Kahaan, sharing screen with Ananya Panday and Siddhanth Chaturvedi. The film was announced in 2021, but it’s release date is not out yet. On this, Adarsh gives an update.

“Kho Gaye Hum Kahaan, we just finished dubbing for it, so it should be released in the next three or four months, September – October. I am very excited about it, I am so happy to have worked with Ananya (Panday) and Siddhant (Charturvedi). Both of them are absolute sweethearts and are really solid actors but also amazing people to work with, very giving people to work with.”

 

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When asked how he feels that The White Tiger, the Netflix film that garnered him international acclaim, and also got him a BAFTA nomination, received a lukewarm response from the Indian audience. He says, “The nature of current times is such that there is so much content and there are so many amazing actors and so many amazing performers. It is not a time anymore that you sit and gloat about one performance for a very long time because then there is somebody else who comes and does something even amazing in the next week. That’s the way it should be. I feel like when people are constantly trying to make something that’s good and something that’s authentic and original, as far as the intent is right. It is a very healthy sort of comparative space to be in. I think at the end of it all of us want to be part of great shows and great stories.”

 

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So how difficult does it get to make a space for oneself and then retaining it, and if he has a strategy in place when it comes to his career, Adarsh says, he is here to do what he loved, and doesn’t have a strategy.

“There’s never been a strategy, the idea is to be doing something that you have chosen to do, it is not like math class where parents say ‘maths toh karna hi hoga beta pass hone ke liye (You’ll have to do mathematics to pass)’. It is something that you enjoy, something that when you wake up in the morning, you look forward to your day because you’re playing who you don’t identify with or identify with but it gives you a sense of renewed purpose in life. At least for me, I feel like in life there is a certain monotony that sets in because you are aware of your problems. But when I play a character, a person, I get to adopt all their insecurities, and all their positives and negatives and my life becomes so much more interesting and colourful, that’s the reason I act. I feel like all the judgements and the audience aside, acting for me is very personal and I do it because it really matters to me, affects me.”