It comes as a jolting surprise to know that the young promising actor from Jaipur, Dhairya Karwa who played the Sikh soldier Sartaj in Aditya Dhar’s Uri: The Surgical Strike, is not a Sikh in real life.
Says the method actor, “No, I am not a Sikh in real life. I did my prep to play the role in Uri. I did whatever I could. I spent two weeks living in a Gurdwara, learnt about the way the Sikhs live, walk, talk, eat, their tenets and beliefs. For me, a character, a role is an opportunity to get to expand the bandwidth of my personality, to get to know other people, cultures and communities.”
Now, Uri: The Surgical Strike’s Sartaj will play well-known cricketer Ravi Shastri in Kabir Khan‘s ‘83 the film about India’s victory in the 1983 World Cup.
And Dhairya is as charged-up about playing the cricketer as he was about playing the soldier. Says Dhairya, “I have been prepping for my cricketer’s role for some time now. I’ve played cricket in school. But that’s obviously not enough,” says this passionate famished actor who has had no formal training. “I was preparing for a MBA degree when the acting bug hit me. So I kept the MBA on hold and moved to Mumbai to pursue my dream.I only did a 10-day acting workshop when I first moved to Mumbai in 2016. After that, I am completely self-trained, auditioning, recording my own videos , learning on my own.”
Dhairya would soon be meeting Ravi Shastri. “It is the logical and right thing to do. I hope he approves of the actor who’s playing him.”
