Star who earned his stripes the hard way
Adarsh Gourav is electrifying in the screen adaptation of aravind adiga’s bestseller The White Tiger — and he certainly suffered for his art.
Gourav plays Balram, an underdog, born to serve India’s idle rich, who clambers up a greasy, murderous pole. But when he went undercover in a village, to see what Balram’s early years might have been like, he contracted food poisoning. Very different, he said, from his own upbringing with bankers for parents.
as we chatted on Zoom — Gourav from his apartment in Mumbai — he still looked very thin. he said: ‘I slept comfortably in a bed, but there were mosquitoes; and I felt sick for the first six days, and lost a lot of weight.
‘My cheekbones had sunken — and I realised: this is how Balram should look,’ he said of the ‘illness accident’ that inadvertently helped him prepare for the film, which streams on Netflix from today.
The director ramin Bahrani, who worked with his close friend adiga on the screenplay, said of Gourav’s performance. ‘he’s got a power about him.’
and he’s right — he reminded me of a young Marlon Brando with lots of raw energy.
Gourav defended Balram’s journey into darkness, as he goes from servant to master. ‘he’s a dreamer who doesn’t have the opportunity to dream. It gets very tricky when you’re playing a character like that. You’ve got to understand the human side of him,’ he told me.
To get further under Balram’s skin, the actor sought work on a street food stall. ‘I had to get a job without having to show my identity card,’ he told me.
his success gave him confidence. and working with experienced co-stars Priyanka Chopra (‘she’s a huge star in India’) and rajkummar rao, who play the couple he steps on to gain freedom, was another bonus.
‘Priyanka’s one of the sweetest, most humble people!’ he said, his face lighting up. however, he didn’t get to hang out with her. ‘I was in almost every scene, shooting every day,’ he said. and on his rare days off, he slept.
Gourav started out studying classical Indian music, but in his teens switched to metal. ‘My parents are flexible and gentle people and adapt to things as fast as I do, so they were happy with my change of choice of music,’ he said.
To spare them pain, he and his bandmates rented a jam room, to rehearse their songs (heavily influenced by new age australian heavy metal, he NoW, explained helpfully).
though, he’s determined to pursue a career as an actor — and has just been signed up by top-level hollywood agents and management.
‘I’ll live out of a suitcase,’ he insisted, should his triumph in The White Tiger lead to other major parts. ‘ I’ve always desired to work across boundaries — and not just in India. I don’t see why language is a barrier in the 21st century.
‘The language of film is universal and it doesn’t matter what country you come from.
‘The old Indian doctor stereotypes are a thing of the past,’ he said. ‘ Indians don’t play doctors who shake their head any more. We can play doctors who are just doctors, you know?
‘ It’s about character, not ethnicity.’