Special Ops actor Sajjad Delafrooz: It’s a blessing that I got an important role

Here are excerpts from the conversation:

Special Ops received rave reviews from the audience. How are you taking all the reactions?

The reviews were quite surprising for me. I only had one wish – to work with Neeraj Pandey. I didn’t expect the audience will also appreciate my work. Some even said that my performance in Special Ops is better than my performance in Tiger Zinda Hai. Even Hrithik Roshan liked the show. That’s so lovely of him to have posted the video and praised everybody.

Special Ops happens to be both your and Neeraj Pandey’s digital debut.

In a web series, every character gets screen time. In a film, characters keep coming and going. Here, they stay, and you remember them. The writing on the web is fair to everyone, since there are so many characters in a story and not just the main hero.

See more

Your first Bollywood film was Neeraj Pandey’s Baby (2015). How was it getting to work with him after so many years?

It’s been a long journey getting to work with him again. In Baby, I played a doctor who had to just put a tape on Akshay Kumar’s belly. Even for such a small part, I had to grow my beard so that I don’t look young. I lost several commercials because of that (laughs). But it’s been an interesting journey.

This time, Neeraj Pandey called me to his office and told me that he was doing a web show. He asked me to audition for it and said there was no script at that point. So he asked me to write a script in any language and audition with that. That’s how I landed it.

But you are playing a terrorist yet again. Why are you typecasting yourself?

I wish to do different roles. But even in similar roles, I try not to be same at all. I want to live my dream, which is Bollywood. That’s my main goal. People remember the character. And more important is working with big names. When I met Neeraj sir in April last year, I didn’t even know anything about my role, how big or small it was. I just wanted to work with him. That’s all. It’s a blessing that I got an important role.

You’ve also done action scenes this time. And one of it is an important sequence in the show, also featuring actor Vipul Gupta. Tell us more.

We trained with Cyril Raffaelli for it a day before the shoot. He was also the action director for Baby. We had to work on it a lot. I even got back pain for two weeks. Also, the temperature was so bad while shooting. The scene was set in summer, but actually it was winter then. That was another challenge.

Special OPS is Sajjad Delafrooz and Neeraj Pandey’s second collaboration.

Special Ops released when India is observing self-isolation. Do you think that became a blessing as people had more time to watch it?

I don’t want to think like that. I want to think that it is an interesting show.

You grew up in UAE and became a Bollywood fan at an early age. What stayed with you about Hindi movies all these years?

I’m a 90s kid and I’ve loved Bollywood. Also, pop songs of that era. I’ve always been living the 90s dream in my mind. I feel attached to that.

You are also a writer-filmmaker. What is it that works differently in Bollywood?

It’s a different game in Bollywood. Nowadays, stories are also changing. I feel more connected to the human part of the stories. Like even if Tiger Zinda Hai was larger than life, there was a human touch in it. So that is there in Bollywood, and it is very interesting. For the writer in me as well, it is a good time.

Also read: Neeraj Pandey: Special Ops will resonate with everyone

Now that you are here in Bollywood, how are you planning your career?

I never had this planning thing. I knew I had a dream, and I had to work towards it. There was never plan A or plan B, or a certain way of doing things. I never had a plan, to be honest. All I had was my hard work. Also, it is not that what is working today will work tomorrow. You cannot stick to one way of doing things. Especially in our industry, plans don’t work. Sometimes you think the film is good, but it won’t work. Sometimes you don’t like it, but the audience loves it. So you have to work honestly.

What have you learned about the Indian film industry?

Patience. That’s the biggest lesson. I also learned that failures are a part of life here. But you become stronger. So when someone tells me my work is not good, I try to understand what is behind his opinion.