‘You can plan a lot but things happen at their own pace’

AViral Wedding actor Amol Parashar confesses that till a few years ago he used to believe that he was not “hero material” and would keep doing just advertisements and side roles with theatre.

“In a practical manner, I never expected to come this far where I would be playing a lead role in a project. Despite a lot of money, I did not want to do TV. So, I knew that I would do theatre for creative satisfaction, do ads and thoda-bahut films and that’s it! In 201415, I used to discuss with my friend that no one will ever make me a hero, which had a different meaning then,” says the Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare (2020) actor.

But things changed. “The OTT medium happened and came opportunities of Cash, 36 Farmhouse (2021) and Sardar Udham (2022). Now, I see it’s possible for us to be on the big screen too. The template of male lead has opened up,” he says on his visit to Lucknow.

“It has been a journey of discovery for me. I did theatre in Delhi and then moved to Mumbai but soon realised that I can’t survive on that. So, I started with doing ads and used to stand in long queues of auditions. In Rocket Singh Salesman of The Year (2009) it was for the first time that I saw a camera.”

Parashar is happy with the way things have shaped up for him. “After being in the industry now I can say that you can plan a lot but things happen at their own pace. As actors, we can just hope but actually nothing is in our hands. But I am happy with my graph. I feel blessed to have worked in films like Sardar Udham where I got to work with Shoojit Sircar and play freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.”

He has good work in hand. “After Tripling, I have only signed films. My last four films that were released on OTT were all supposed to be theatrical releases. I have shot for two films which I am not allowed to talk about and will be starting another. I hope that after three seasons we get a new season and Cash too has potential for a franchise.”