The road to the tinsel town has not been a cakewalk for Amit Sadh, who recently tasted success as his character in Sultan was appreciated. The actor, who has been struggling all this while in order to get a foothold in Hindi films, is content that his work has finally been appreciated in the Salman Khan-starrer. “Akash my character is the closest to me; like him even I have seen failure, in fact a lot of it. And I feel proud when I say that. If you do not taste failures, you will never realise the true meaning of success and today when people compliment me for my work, the amount of happiness it gives me is unfathomable,” says Amit whose efforts in Guddu Rangeela went largely unnoticed.
Akash has many layers and Amit says he had to arrive at a balance. “My character sure was challenging because I had to keep all the nuances in mind, when to be arrogant and not overdo it. The role was so well written and the credit goes to our director Ali Abbas Zafar. Beside that, I have learned from Salman sir, ‘Don’t try too hard’. When Salman sir used to shoot one thing that I constantly noticed about him was that he never tried to be something that he is not. And this made him look so natural as Sultan.”
On holding his own in front of the big star, Amit says, “With Salman sir, it is not you who decides to keep calm or not, but it is he who decides that for you. We all know how wonderful he is, there is so much goodness in him. The entire time while we were shooting, he never made me feel that he is a superstar. He always kept it very simple and this is the reason he makes people around him so comfortable, naturally.”
But working with stars also means that you have to remain in their shadow. “I am not a star with good styling sense or looks. I don’t have wealth. All that I have is honesty. If I am offered a 10 minute role opposite to a big star, I will do it. It does not matter how small your role is or how big the star is. If I try to give my best in those 10 minutes, people sure will notice me,” reasons Amit.
With a face that is ‘soft’ and ‘cute’ there is always a danger of Amit being stereotyped as yet another chocolate boy who could not get enough romantic films. “I guess things are changing now and we have seen many actors playing different kind of roles. It is all about the demand of the character and the story. In my upcoming movie, Yaara I have put on weight because the character demands it. But it also depends on our audience and their liking for an actor in some specific kind of roles.”
Initially, the actor, who comes from defence background, aspired to join the Armed Forces but destiny had other plans for him and he made his debut in Phoonk 2 . The film flopped and even after that despite getting good reviews in Kai Po Che Amit remained on the sidelines. “There sure were times when I was disappointed but I had no other option. I had no job, no family, no place to go, no one to support. All that I could do was try and I kept trying. Patience is a bitter plant but it bears sweet fruit. There are good days but there are bad days as well, every coin has two sides. But that one thing which always gave me the courage to face the lows in life is reading.”
