MUMBAI: Theatre actor Karanvir Malhotra, who is making his screen debut with the Netflix original titled "Selection Day" -- produced by veteran Bollywood actor-producer Anil Kapoor -- says he is very excited to get such an opportunity.
As a fan boy of Anil, Karanvir told IANS: "Anil Kapoor is the first ever celebrity I ever met in Mumbai. Earlier, once I worked for the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. My job was to bring the celebrities to the venue. On that event, my first celeb face-off was with Anil sir.
"Over there, he came out of the car along with his wife Sunita ma'am, and I was just looking at him...the way he was meeting people, walking around. I was so overjoyed just to observe him. Coincidentally this time when I am making my screen debut, he is producing the show! I think these all are connected somewhere."
Karanvir aspired to become a cricketer and now that he is part of a web show that revolves around the game of cricket, he feels very "lucky" to be a part of the story.
Sharing an early memory, he said: "I guess I was 12 years old when I met Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the first time. I was so overwhelmed. I remember asking him about his secret of batting, and he responded, 'just hit the ball from the middle of the bat'."
"When I heard the story, I was engrossed and I am glad that people will get to see me worldwide through this show. I am a theatre actor, so I have performed on stage many times but this is the first time I will be seen on-screen on such a large scale," he said.
Karanvir, who is plying the character of the cricket captain Javed Ansari, said: "He (Javed) comes from an affluent background and shares a special bond with Manju and quite discordial with Radha. He is little arrogant, a bit spoilt brat but a sweetheart too."
So what kind of physical preparation has he gone through to get into the skin of the character?
"I used to practise cricket every day for two hours even on Sundays. I had to perfect my game because I play a cricketer in the show. It was very grilling in the beginning, especially when we used to practise under the scorching heat. We had a coach who trained us on how to play some specific shots because we had some close-ups of those shots. Also, Atul Mongia sir trained us for quite some time before we started rolling. I hope we did a good job to make Atul sir proud of us," he said.
"Selection Day" will start streaming on December 28 on Netflix.