‘Bollywood is in dire need of newer faces & talent’ says 'Guilty' actor Gurfateh Singh Pirzada

It’s hard not to get starstruck by Gurfateh Singh Pirzada’s looks, but a few minutes into a conversation with him, you realise he is much more than that! Pirzada, who shot to fame with the web series Class (2023), where he played a Dalit character Neeraj Kumar Valmiki, and Guilty (2020) with Kiara Advani, is looking forward to his next web series Call Me Bae.

The show, which was recently announced, stars Ananya Panday and Vir Das and will be out in September. Pirzada is excited to be playing a positive role in Call Me Bae after playing a series of grey characters. “I wanted to play a positive guy for my mom, who said she can’t watch anything that I do because of the content. So Call Me Bae is a show for her,” says Pirzada.

The show is a breath of fresh air, which allow him to break the stereotype of fitting into certain characters. Entering Bollywood during a time when the buzz about nepotism was at its peak, Pirzada has mixed feelings about it. “It’s tricky with the nepo kids because if I was one, I would have also used the name. People already know you before your first movie comes out. It’s a big help. For us [outsiders], it’s different, but things are opening up now. For us, it’s performance-based. Someone will watch me for my work,” explains Pirzada.

However, he also feels things are changing. “Everyone is bored of the same faces over and over again. You can’t see the same actor in six movies. So I feel Bollywood is in dire need of newer faces and talent.”

Pirzada has always been a man of many talents. Before coming to Bollywood, he was a cricketer and an equestrian but had to quit due to injuries. “I was into theatre and modelling. I met Prasad Bidapa after 10 years. He was the first person to groom me for the fashion world,” says the actor, who was in the city for the launch of Idyll, a new restaurant. He quit modelling because of the short lifespan of the job, not worried about staying unemployed. “It’s still a risk you have to take. I was very clear that I would stop modelling and focus on my acting career. It’s a very different field. During my modelling days, I had a very different lifestyle which I realised I had to change to be a serious actor,” says Pirzada, who grew up primarily in Chandigarh and New Delhi.

Speaking of his creative process, Pirzada says, “When you are acting, you are basically emoting. Sometimes, it is cathartic to dig into your past experiences to find those emotions to tell stories. Out of all the characters I have played, I feel the best is yet to come,” says Pirzada, who also appeared in Brahmastra: Part One - Shiva as Sher and will be seen in Shashank Khaitan’s directorial Bedhadak with Shanaya Kapoor and Laksh Lalwani.