Actor Adarsh Gourav, who played the character Balram Halwai in The White Tiger, has been nominated for the BAFTA awards under the Best Leading Actor category. He spoke to Indulge about how he transformed into Balram Halwai for the movie.
The White Tiger has also been nominated under the Adapted Screenplay Writing category for the BAFTA awards, and revolves around an auto-driver who escapes poverty and rises to power and fame after one fateful incident.
Here are five interesting facts about the actor and his role in the movie:
1. Actor Adarsh Gourav said he had no expectations when he went for the auditions for the film and was actually planning to take up some other movie because he had believed The White Tiger was a huge project and that he would not land it.
2. The actor had read the book by Arvind Adiga when he was 13 years old, so he knew the story and the characters in it even before he took up the project.
3. Adarsh had landed the role in June and began shooting in October. How did he make use of those three months in between, you ask? By travelling to a village named Chalkari Basti in Jharkhand, getting to explore the lifestyle there, and even working at a food stall in Delhi for two weeks.
4. The actor had slipped into the role of Balram even before the shoot for the film began. When he went in search of jobs at the village in Jharkhand, he would introduce himself as ‘Balram’ and not Adarsh, and even dress and change his appearance to look like Balram.
However, the problem with this idea was that all workplaces required IDs, and his face looked different because of the costume and make-up. His ID too would have the name Adarsh on it.
He finally managed to land a job where IDs were not required and worked for a daily wage of Rs. 100.
5. A brief scene in the movie, where Balram is heard singing a song, turned out to have been sung by Adarsh himself. The actor also revealed that he began his career as a singer, and that the singing scene had actually been a random improvisation that worked out well.
Watch the full interview here: