Preet Vihar resident Sambhav Jain, 27, is very excited these days. His stint as a cop in the new Hot Star web series, Rudrakal, has been lauded. “I play the role of Mahesh, a young protégé of DCP Ranjan Chittoda, who is not just a senior officer and a mentor, but also a father-figure to him,” says Jain, adding he will be seen solving various crime cases with his mentor as the series progresses.
Rudrakal is not Jain’s first major project. He appeared in the hit movies, Gully Boy and Good Newz. About Gully Boy, he says, “I was initially chosen to play the part of one of Ranveer Singh’s friends, but perhaps Zoya (Akhtar) ma’am found me too young and gave me just a cameo.”
Beginning with theatre
As strange as it might sound, but even before Jain knew what ‘actor’ meant, he had proclaimed that he would become one someday. “I was around 3-4 years old when a relative asked me what I would become upon growing up, and I said actor. I don’t know why I said that, but that word remained with me.” Surprisingly, he never participated in school plays though his alma maters – Ryan International and GD Goenka – are known for their extracurricular activities, because he “only wanted to become a film actor”. It was while pursuing a BBA course at Amity University in 2013 that one of his teachers saw his passion for acting and advised him to join a theatre group.
“She told me most film actors came from a theatre background. Then, I went to see the play Ambedkar’s Gandhi (by Asmita Theatre Group), and got transported to another world. It motivated me to join the group,” he says. For the next two years Jain stayed with the Asmita Theatre Group doing all kinds of plays. He still remembers performing in the play Tamasha (written by Swadesh Deepak) with the group.
“I was the protagonist, who dies in the end. It did very well and we took it to different Delhi colleges.” In early 2016, he quit the group after gaining enough experience in the field, and started giving auditions for advertisements. He shot for a number of TVCs, and did a short film Armaan Ek Khwaab and a full-length film Firki– the latter made by college students. “Firki, in which I played the lead, gave me a good experience in on-camera acting,” he says. By the end of 2016, he took a huge leap of faith and moved to Mumbai.
“Every morning, I would pack a bag with a couple of costumes and visit studios, meet casting directors, give auditions, and return home late at night. It was tough, but I never got disheartened.” His big break came three months later with the Airtel ad, which paved the way for TVCs of 60 brands, including Manyavar, Urban Clap, Havells, Maruti, Uber, and, Aditya Birla.
Then followed opportunities for short films and web series in quick succession, and he also started acting in short movies (Ice Breaker, Sumati, etc). During the lockdown, he made a five-episode web series Sweet n Sour (aired on MX Player). “The idea is to never sit idle. Consistent hard work pays,” says Jain, whose upcoming projects are web series Becharey (on Rapchik) Part 2, a satirical comedy film, and a love story Shamil.