Sushant Singh, the actor who debuted in Ram Gopal Varma’s (RGV) classic Satya in 1998, as Pakiya, has come a long way. What makes Sushant an actor in the league of experimental artistes is that he has always challenged himself by doing roles that are out of the box. His latest outing as detective Adi Bhagat on Flipkart Video’s new interactive crime show Kaun? Who did it? proves why Singh is an artiste who brings a cinematic edge even to a web series.
Screen presence His sharp performance as the retired cop who is forced to go back to solving cases seems to have impressed audiences. The concept of an interactive crime show is what attracted the actor to be part of this project. Once onboard, he says, the challenging part was to prepare for the show. “Adi’s character is quite interesting. I made him a slightly eccentric, unpredictable and quirky character who drops witty one-liners.
The limp (which is a prominent feature of the cop, Adi) reminded me of Dr House, one of my favourite characters. It was my suggestion to get the boots with a brace, and I had to practise walking in them, which was quite painful. But the entire experience was fun, and we improvised further when we started shooting,” shares the actor, who is a fan of Indian detectives such as Karamchand and Byomkesh Bakshi.
Play of words
Singh’s outing in South Indian cinema is not restricted only to Telugu. His most recent film in Kannada was the Kichcha Sudeep-starrer Pailwaan. The actor says being a part of Telugu and Kannada films has been quite challenging for him. “My acting might have looked effortless, but it hasn’t been easy at all. I have to work hard on my dialogues because of the language barrier.
But I enjoyed working in Pailwaan. The director and Sudeep helped me with the language, the syntax, and I tried to make it as fun as possible, but I couldn’t improvise,” he says. Next, the actor will be seen in Good Luck Jerry. “It is a madcap dark comedy and stars Janhvi Kapoor in the lead role. I will be starting the shoot in Patiala soon,” says Singh, whose latest web series Jeet Ki Zid on Zee5 has garnered quite a lot of interest online.