The actor, whose performance in Gulaal was raved about, speaks to Metrolife about his role in AOHR and his future projects. “I am playing Sidharth, a hustler and a drug pusher, who is in love with Celina,” he explains.
He says, “It’s a positive character with grey shades.” How was his experience working with established names like Jagmohan Mundhra and Farooq Sheikh? “It was a wonderful experience working with wonderful people,” he says.
Not many know that Abhimanyu was first seen in Aks way back in 2001. After a prominent role in Jannat, he was able to gain recognition through his superb portrayal of Ransa in Gulaal.
The talented actor admits that he did have a long struggle period consisting of many ups and downs. “I became like a rock at one point of time,” he says. “Nothing could rustle my feathers or affect me. Everything just made me stronger.” He was doing a play called Sar Sar Sarla, when he landed Anurag Kashyap’s Gulaal. “I was working with Sonali Kulkarni, Makrand Deshpande and Anurag,” he recalls. “I guess there was a certain madness and arrogance in me that Anurag liked,” he says modestly.
Currently, Abhimanyu is working on many projects — I Am Omar, Happy Journey and Rakta Charitra. “I Am Omar is part of a series of short films directed by Onir, which is about three guys — two gays and a cop. I play the Marathi cop,” he explains. In Happy Journey, he stars opposite Kalki Coechlin of Dev D fame. “I play the role of a guy who runs a casino, and gets into trouble when he gives some money to mafia. Kalki plays my girlfriend.”Ram Gopal Varma’s Rakta Charitra is one film, which Abhimanyu believes, will put him “in the big league”. “It’s a bi-lingual, being shot in Hindi and Telugu and my role will be a surprise element in the film.” Was it difficult for him to understand and speak Telugu? “I am good in Sanskrit so that helped me pick up the language. Plus, an assistant kept prompting me with the lines during the shoot,” he says.
Will we see him in a light-hearted comedy sometime? “In AOHR, I am quite funny actually. There isn’t much intensity.” There are many directors that he would like to work with. “Ashutosh Gowarikar, Mani Ratnam, Shimit Amin, Neeraj Pandey, Dibakar Bannerjee, Vishal Bhardwaj, Rakesh Mehra to name a few,” he says. Is he also planning to direct or produce a movie? “I have no future plans,” he says frankly. “I don’t make plans as they don’t materialise.”
Deepa Natarajan
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