BORED OF PLAYING NEGATIVE CHARACTERS: JIM SARBH

After playing antagonist in movies like Padmaavat and Neerja, Jim wants to portray characters who care about people

When I played these roles, they were the only ones that were offered to me. However, now I have the liberty to be a lot more selective

He created an impression with his powerful portrayal of negative characters in films like Neerja, Raabta and Padmaavat, but actor Jim Sarbh now wants to look beyond these “one-sided characters” as he says he is really tired of playing people “who don’t care about” others.

“When I played these roles, they were the only ones that were offered to me. However, now I have the liberty to be a lot more selective. I am a little bored of playing negative characters. I want to now look at meaty, complicated roles. I am not interested in one-sided characters,” Jim said.

Talking about his previous roles and the kind of characters he wants to do in future, Sarbh said: “I am really tired of playing characters who don’t care about people. I now want to start portraying characters who care about people.”

His portrayal of Malik Kafur, the slave-general of Ranveer Singh’s character Alauddin Khilji in filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat, brought him loads of appreciation. The actor says that working with Bhansali has helped him in mastering the basics of acting.

“Sanjay has a very keen eye for detailing. It’s all about making a beautiful frame and filling that frame with equally detailed, subtle, nuanced acting. I am very happy I got a chance to be a part of that process. I learnt a lot about precision, it was like an accelerated course in the basics of film – hitting your mark, eyeline, learning the frame, its angles.”

“Thanks to this process, I am now much more comfortable being on any other project or set. Because I have mastered the basics,” Jim said. For the actor, Malik Kafur was a brilliant character.

“The moment I read the script, I knew I wanted to essay the role. I thought the character was so interesting and had so much scope and playfulness to it,” he said.

Talking about his future projects, he said: “There is a web-series ‘Made in Heaven’ I am currently working on. I also worked on a film earlier this year with Michael Winterbottom that also starred Dev Patel and Radhika Apte which is premiering at Toronto International Film Festival. Another film that I worked on in Dubai... with Neel Kumar directing it.