Two very different characters have been meeting audiences almost simultaneously. With actor and writer Aditya Rawal’s recent performance in Daldal and Subedaar, which are gaining momentum on streaming platforms, the conversations around the performances continue to grow. For Aditya, it marks a fascinating phase. In conversation with CE, he talks about his memories of Hyderabad, choosing roles, preparing for layered characters and more.
Talking about his favourite Hyderabadi memories, Aditya expresses, “I have been to Hyderabad for a school trip when I was a kid, and I saw everything including the Charminar. Funnily enough, my play Siachen was staged at the Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Festival in Hyderabad late last year, and the whole team was there while I was shooting and could not go.”
For the actor, choosing a project always begins with a simple question about whether the story and character will hold his attention through months of work and preparation. He explains that the process is as much about creative curiosity as it is about commitment. “I look at the story and the character and ask if they will sustain my interest for the next three to five months. I will work very hard on it, because I like to take time to prepare. When I consider all of this together, I ask if it will keep me motivated throughout the project, and if the answer is yes and the people I am working with are those I admire, then the decision becomes very easy for me,” he says.
That curiosity often shapes the way he prepares for his roles. Aditya says each character demands a different process, something he experienced clearly while working on Daldal and Subedaar. “For Daldal, there was a lot to do with addiction, and it involved research and understanding how addiction manifests in the real world and the psyche of someone who is an addict. Whereas with Subedaar, the process was completely different, and it also depends on the tone of the story and the director’s process,” he expresses, adding, “The character of Prince in Subedaar is one of the most fun characters I have played because he is bizarre, colourful and completely unhinged, and he acts without any fear of consequences. What interested me most is that he is driven by insecurities and therefore responds in a disproportionate way as he wreaks havoc to assert himself. In real life, growing up in Mumbai, we worry about consequences and perception,” he reflects.
Getting into that space required a mental shift, he adds, because the character lives without the hesitation most people carry in real life. “The mental preparation was shifting my mindset into somebody unafraid of consequences and only interested in asserting himself and the attention he can get from it. That was a big shift for me because to live and breathe that character, one has to really understand them, and once I made that shift, I could riff and find my space in scenes,” he admits.
Working alongside veteran actor Anil Kapoor in Subedaar was another memorable part of the experience. Aditya says sharing the screen with someone he had admired for years was both exciting and inspiring. “It was great working with him. I was already in awe of his previous work, and my respect increased because of his professionalism and dedication to his craft, which is why he has been a star for 40 years and an absolute inspiration,” he smiles.
At the same time, coming from a family deeply connected with cinema, Aditya also values the advice he receives from his father, veteran actor Paresh Rawal. He says having access to decades of experience has been a huge advantage. “It helps immensely, and it helps in many ways. One is that I have the guidance of somebody with 40 years of experience to fall back on, whether it is career or minute acting details, because he has not only been in the industry for decades but has also done exactly what I am doing as an actor. Because of that, it is not just about industry or career decisions, but also about acting analysis and advice on the craft. At the same time, when your parents are in the industry, it becomes slightly easier to meet people, and there are plenty of advantages. As far as pressure is concerned, I do not think about it because he is so big and so successful, and there is no comparison yet,” he highlights.
Off-camera, the actor leads a life that is equally busy and creative. Aditya spends his time travelling, playing football, watching theatre plays and films, reading books and writing stories and plays. For him, these experiences are an important part of being an actor. He seems certain that the real journey lies in choosing stories and roles that keep pushing and challenging him further.