For actor Amit Sadh, enacting the role of Shivaji Nagre, grandson of patriarch Subhash Nagre in Sarkar 3 wasn’t really the most difficult task. Sadh who hails from a family that served in the army for generations, bureaucracy and politics has been a part of his life for as long as he can remember. “I was brought up in an army family. Wherever in the world I go, in the first 30 seconds people [can] tell me [apart]. [It’s] because of my discipline [and] the way I behave – that I am an army kid.”
Drawing from the past
It was Amitabh Bachchan who recommended Sadh to director Ram Gopal Varma for the role in Sarkar 3 . Sadh strongly believes that if a prequel ever gets made on Subhash Nagre’s younger days, it would be him playing the role. Sadh has drawn a lot from his memories, specially his grandfather to understand his character. “When I was young, I was once told that I have gone on my grandfather. I remembered that. Because of my good and bad behavior, they used to say I behave like him. When I got this role, I said, it’s very simple. He has to be Subhash Nagre’s reflection.”
Sadh’s on-screen character which is prone to brutality has been drawn out of the actor’s real life experiences. It also implies that there is a huge reservoir of anger that he has tapped into. After some probing, the actor opens up to memories of his younger days when he was the certified black sheep, in a family that was more or less an achievers’ club. Add to that, Sadh was prone to violence. “I was very violent when I was young. To the extent that I was thrown out of my school, La Martiniere [Lucknow],” he recalls candidly.
Sadh’s streak of rage was relentless. “I was taught tumhare ek haath ko koi tode toh tum uska dusra haath tod dena (if someone breaks your hand, take the exact same revenge).” Losing his father at a young age only aggravated the situation. “I’d just be fighting, [using] knuckle duster, rods, being beaten up or beating up [someone],” he says. By the time Sadh turned 25, it began dawning on him just how misplaced his anger was. “I said to myself, is this the life you want? I got tired of anger, I was so tired of violence. I was so tired of fights,” he shares honestly.
Change in tide
From an angry young man, Sadh turned into a pacifist. And he credits his profession i.e. acting for this. “Acting is an amazing psychiatrist that pays you. Otherwise it takes a lot of money to go to a psychiatrist, I get paid to get healed, that’s why my meaning is different. I don't think I have reason to be angry any more, I am completely healed,” he says with gratitude.
Having his younger days on sports and fitness regimes, Sadh was exposed to films fairly late. The first film he saw in his life was Mani Ratnam’s Bombay (1995). “I trained to be an army man,” he says. It was an impulsive decision to be an actor that landed him in Mumbai, leaving behind his well-established career in mountaineering and rock climbing. Soon luck favoured him, and he landed roles in TV shows, and finally, after substantial struggle, he is now acting in big feature film productions.
Dealing with failure
Sadh’s last release Running Shaadi that released earlier this year, tanked at the box office, but the actor is stoically sanguine when he states, “I am an artist. I have to take [failure] with a pinch of salt. My success and failure doesn't impact me, it impacts people because they change.”
Which is why he looks at his last film in an upbeat way, “We made Running Shaadi in 2013, it gave me money. After leaving TV, for the first time in seven years I made money. For Kai Po Che , I got nothing. My make-up artist makes more money in a film, I was paid less than that because it was my first film. I got so much money for Running Shaadi that I paid my rent for a year, in advance, and I still have money left. How can it be a flop?,” he asserts.
For him, poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s lines for his son Amitabh resonate the strongest: “ Man ka ho toh achcha ... na ho toh zyaada achcha. Kyun ki phir wo iswar ke man ka hota hai, aur iswar aap ka hamesha achcha chahega .” (“If things happen according to your will, it’s good. But if things do not happen according to your will, then it's even better. Because, then things will happen according to God's will and God will always want your good.”)
On the horizon
The actor has a lot to look forward to professionally. He’s recently auditioned for a big show on ABC and will feature in two of director Tigmanhsu Dhulia’s forthcoming productions. The first one is titled Yaara , reportedly an official adaptation of Olivier Marchal’s French film Les Lyonnais , and the second one is titled Raag Desh , a period film that will recreate the Indian National Army (INA) trials. He has also shot for a web series for Amazon, tentatively titled Breathe spanning over eight episodes. “I play an alcoholic cop who of course is very good at what he does. And he has his own demons,” he shares.
