Actor Akhil Kaimal has been basking in the praise for his performance as Ashwin, a struggling writer-director in Ambrish Verma’s Sapne vs Everyone S2, which revolves around impossible choices and emotional fallout that come with chasing ambitious dreams. But for the actor, the most rewarding part has been the reaction from people who had never seen his work before. “This was the first time when a lot of unknown people reached out to me on Instagram and appreciated my performance. So, this feels very surreal for me,” he says.
When asked why he said yes to the role, Ashwin says that constant hustle, juggling survival with ambition, mirrored his own journey in the industry. “I would say I relate to almost every character in the show in some way. There are two parallel tracks in the series, one based in Mumbai and the other in Delhi. The series has so many layered characters, Prashant, Ashwin, and others. My own life has felt like an amalgamation of all of them. There’s a bit of me in Prashant, a bit in Ashwin and even in some of the other characters. Like Ashwin, I’ve also spent years struggling in the industry, hustling, managing different things just to keep my dream alive. I’ve been doing that for the last nine years. So, I connected deeply not just with Ashwin, but with the script as a whole because it speaks about lives like ours. That’s what made this project feel so personal to me.”
Akhil has steadily built an impressive body of work with projects like The Kerala Story, Asur, The Trial and The Hunt: Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case. But the road to the film industry felt like he had been through the wringer.
Having begun his career in the corporate sector in Gurgaon, his routine, soon started feeling stifling. But weekend classes at Barry John Acting Studio in Delhi changed the course of his life. “I used to wait for those two days throughout the week so that I could go there. It still took me almost one and a half years to finally decide that I should leave this job. You cannot sail on two boats after all. You need to make a decision.”
Akhil tells us though he grew up in Gujarat, he always felt deeply connected to Malayalam cinema. “From childhood, I have been fascinated more towards Malayalam films than Hindi films. But entering the Malayalam industry was a hard road to hoe. With few connections and an introverted personality, I struggled to find footing in Kerala. To sustain myself, I worked multiple jobs, from teaching maths online during the pandemic to working at the Kochi Biennale. Even after appearing in films like Jalasamadhi, which earned international recognition, and the dark comedy Jan.E.Man, opportunities remained thin on the ground.
“Those were just experiences and nothing much was moving for me. That’s why Mumbai had to happen. Mumbai has been fortunate and generous for me. All my acting journey and portfolio happened after shifting here.”
One of the toughest phases of his career came after auditioning for Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light. “After that audition, I was super sure that I was going to get this. But later, I discovered the shoot for the film had begun with another actor, and he was devastated. Watching the film’s success at Cannes only intensified the heartbreak. “I was happy for them, but for myself, I was very sad. I was telling myself, ‘Akhil, you had to be there.’”
The disappointment pushed him into a long phase of self-doubt. “2024 was a year where continuously I was questioning myself. But it was during that difficult phase that Sapne vs Everyone 2 landed in his kitty.
The actor was also recently seen in Chand Mera Dil alongside Ananya Panday and Lakshya Lalwani. “I play Lakshya’s friend in it. It’s a Hyderabadi character, again a completely different flair from what I have done till now. Speaking in a Hyderabadi Hindi dialect which I did not know, but I prepared it for the film,” he says. He will also be seen in a Netflix period drama, where he is said to be playing a dark character.
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