‘Thought I Won’t Get ‘The White Tiger’ & They’d Cast a Big Actor’: Adarsh Gourav

'I found a job cleaning plates and it helped me understand Balram's desire to break out," Adarsh Gourav says.

The White Tiger and Guns & Gulaabs actor Adarsh Gourav.

(Photo Courtesy: The Quint)

Actor Adarsh Gourav sat down with The Quint to talk about his life and career, from playing a minor role in Karan Johar's My Name Is Khan to securing a BAFTA nomination for The White Tiger and becoming a cult character as Ganchi Jr. in Guns & Gulaabs.

Speaking about his role in My Name Is Khan, the actor says, "Even in My Name Is Khan, I had actually auditioned for the role of Shah Rukh Khan's son which was a much bigger part. I didn't get that and three months later I got called in for an audition for Shah Rukh's younger version."

"It was a 2 minute role but at that time to just get to be [art of a Karan Johar film, playing the young Shah Rukh Khan...I can't even tell you what it meant to me and my family."

Adarsh Gourav to The Quint

He goes to speak about his first impression of filmmaker Anurag Kashyap and his experience of working with actor Radhika Apte in Clean Shaven. "I realised the force that she (Apte) was when I did a couple of scenes with her. I was absolutely blown away. Sometimes when your co-actor is so brilliant, you become an admirer in the scene, you switch off. That happened to me when I was working with Radhika Apte."

Gourav recalls how attending drama school changed him as an actor and talks about why it's important to teach kids theatre. The actor shot to fame after his role as Balram in The White Tiger.

"I was actually very scared when I got 'The White Tiger' because I had to get out of another project which I got two weeks before this. I wondered, 'How am I going to say no to that?' And before that for three months I had no work."

Adarsh Gourav to The Quint

Speaking of his role in Guns & Gulaabs, "When I started reading about Ganchi Jr. I started realising that they always felt inadequate and insufficient about who they were. When you grow up in an environment where violence is imposed upon you by virtue of being a gangster's son... At the core of it Ganchi Jr. is just a deeply insecure, suppressed individual who's pretending to be somebody else. So lonely right?"

Adarsh Gourav also talks about his love for travelling and nature, how the Ganchi Jr. and ice cream duo happened, working with Satish Kaushik, an interesting painting on his wall, working in a food stall to understand Balram's character and much more.