Abhimanyu Dassani is gradually establishing his position in the Indian film industry as a dependable actor. After his impressive debut in Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota as an action hero, he surprised the audience as the romantic Sundar in Meenakshi Sundareshwar. The actor's latest release Nikamma gives him an opportunity to showcase his comic side and action together. The trailer of Nikamma is quite funny and it appears like Abhimanyu is a good fit for the role of a nikamma (inept individual).
“The characters I play are totally different from each other and keep changing with every film. Every film I do is from a different genre. I like to experiment and challenge myself. Working with Sabbir sir (director) was a great process, it was collaborative and he believed in me. During the workshops, I watched all of Govinda ji’s films and I put on eight kilos of weight, especially on my face and I am sporting some stubble. Nikamma is a person who is lazy and is always sleep deprived and that’s the look I have managed to achieve,” explains the actor.
Abhimanyu also reveals that he had to literally sleep less to get dark circles under his eyes and ended up sleeping only for four hours every night for a couple of days. Sabbir Khan who has made films such as Heropanti, Baaghi and Munna Michael, takes a break from working with his favourite hero Tiger Shroff. With Nikamma, he once again works with an up and coming actor, and in this case it’s Abhimanyu who says he thought the story was engaging and says people will like it. In addition to this, the actor says with this movie he is fulfilling Salman Khan’s desire of working in a commercial action flick. “Bhai had told me he wanted to see me in an action role and this is one of the key reasons to agree to this film.” Shirley Setia, the New Zealand-born singer and actor, who debuted in the Netflix film Maska is cast opposite Abhimanyu. “She is outstanding. She is very sweet and hardworking. She’s already a star because of her music, and yet she came on set and learnt everything from scratch,” he tells us.
However, the big crowd-puller of this movie is Shilpa Shetty who plays Abimanyu’s sister-in-law on screen. Talking about her the actor says, “She has a very warm aura. And she was wonderful, you know, onset and offset. We used to eat together, and then we used to go and work out in the evening after a 15 hour shift. Our bonding was great!” With this commercial flick Abhimanyu is once again testing waters, trying to offer a variety to his audience. “I'm just enjoying every day as it comes. Meeting new people, encountering new circumstances, new adventures, there’s something new to learn. I try to pick up from people that I've worked with and I hope I can be an example of how mature each character is with everyone’s help around,” he says. He will be seen in Aankh Micholi next, and he is part of an ensemble cast that includes Mrunal Thakur, Sharman Joshi, Vijay Raaz and Abhishek Banerjee.
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