For Bollywood actor Jaideep Ahlawat, his tryst with the South began long before he actually bagged the role of Rahul Bose’s aide, Salim, in Kamal Hassan’s Vishwaroopam. The actor began his career in Hindi with namma director Priyadarshan’s Aakrosh and later acted in his Trisha-Akshay Kumar starrer, Khatta Meetha. Now destiny has brought him to South with Vishwaroopam.
Tracing his journey, Jaideep tells CE, “I studied acting at the Pune Film Institute for two years and it was through a casting agent that I bagged Aakrosh then. One thing led to another and soon I had films like Chittagong, Gangs of Wasseypur and Rockstar in my kitty.” During the shoot of Gangs of Wasseypur, where he played the character of Shahid Khan, Atul Tiwari, the dialogue writer of Vishwaroop (Hindi), had seen him and recommended his name to Kamal.
“I got a call one day from Kamal sir’s office, but I thought someone was playing a prank,” laughs Jaideep. “But once I was convinced, I took the next flight to Chennai and met Kamal sir at his office. I was very nervous and could hardly believe my luck to be meeting the legendary actor,” says Jaideep.
The actor is amazed by Kamal’s gesture. Says he, “He actually recorded the entire 20 minutes of my Tamil dialogues in his own voice and sent the audio footage to Mumbai for me. I was so touched by his effort that I took extra care to listen to the tape for four hours a day to familiarise myself with the dialogues. It made me to take the role even more seriously.”
Jaideep is thrilled that he got to spend time with Kamal and see the multi-tasker handle so many departments at once. “Whenever he was free, I would ask him so many questions about films and he would patiently reply to everything. I learnt so much from him. I am so blessed to have worked with someone who has such a panoramic vision of cinema,” says the actor.
Jaideep’s next is Commando in Hindi, but he hopes to work in more Tamil films.