SAHIL VAID, who is currently busy shooting for Satyameva Jayate 2 in Lucknow, tells MUSBA HASHMI about his role in Coolie No 1, which is all set to release on Amazon Prime Video, and how he is not at all a nervous actor
What is your role in Coolie No 1?
Without revealing a lot, I am playing Deepak, Varun’s friend again. This time I play a very different kind of friend. I go through a lot to help him get the girl. As a prize, in this film, for a change I get a girl as well. That’s the difference between the other friends’ roles that I have done with Varun and this one. This also marks a performance where I get to play a different type of role. There’s a lot of lying happening in the film. Sometimes I become his driver, sometime a mechanic and what not.
With every character that you play, there’s always a lesson that you learn.What was it here?
With every film I do and every character that I play, I always learn something. One thing that I took back home from the sets of this film was something that I have learnt from my father years ago. He used to tell me jhoot ke paer nahin hote hain. You tell a lie and then cover it up with another one and the cycle goes on. The other amazing thing I learnt one was that in our country specifically there’s a lot of pressure on the boy to be successful and rich. There’s a lot of expectations from him and many people believe if the boy is well off, their daughter will live a happy life. I want to tell it to everyone that women now are capable of anything and everything. The time is different, hence one should leave it to the boy and girl to make their own choice. This is something that Jeffery Rozario (played by Paresh Rawal) who is Sara and Shikha Talsania’s father in the film, learns the hard way. He looks for rich guys, but ends up getting poor ones for his daughters, who are good actually. This is something that I will remember for a lifetime.
How was the experience to share sets with such a varied cast?
We were shooting in Bangkok and there was a frame where we had Mr Jaaved Jaaferi, Rajpal Yadav, Paresh Rawal and Bharatiji. I was standing around and looked at everyone and thought what did I do to deserve this where I am standing with such amazing actors. This is nothing less than an award. There’s Johnny Lever too, I have grown up watching him. It felt so surreal. My teacher Naseeruddin Shah always say that Johnny Lever is by far the best actor in the industry. One, I was overwhelmed. Two, I was starstruck. Then, there was David Dhawan directing. I was like ‘Sahil Vaid, what have you done to deserve this’. It was a beautiful experience. There was something always happening on the set. It was very old school yet a modern one because there was both of Varun and David Dhawan to bring you an experience of yesterday and today.
Did the surreal experience, as you call it, made you nervous?
If you end up doing theatre with Naseeruddin Shah, you don’t get nervous while acting. I am still nervous when I go and rehearse for a new play with him. He is blatantly honest. He would tell it to your face how bad you were. With David Dhawan it is different. His favourite line to me during shooting was, ‘Sahil maza nahin aa raha’. And when someone says that to you as an actor you are blank. He then explained to me how he want a scene to go. Also it was surprising for me to know that David Dhawan and Naseeruddin Shah are close friends. They both respect each other. I remember David sir telling me once, ‘Kya ho gaya, hero wali acting kar na. Naseer ne sikhaya nahin tujhey’. It is difficult to put these feelings into words.
You once said that to act just means to do. Has the definition changed for you now?
It will never. That’s my basic. Even here at the sets of Satyameva Jayate 2, that I am shooting for right now in Lucknow, I follow this rule. Naseer sir told me that you will get all kinds of roles and genres Sahil and an actor’s job is never to say I don’t think my character would do this. If a director has a vision, you just do it.
What is there in the pipeline?
There’s a film Silence with Manoj Bajpai, Prachi Desai and Vaquar Sheikh, that I just started shooting for. I play a police officer in it. Then there’s Swagatam Khushamdeed that I am shooting later this month that have Pulkit Samrat and Isabelle Kaif.