Having braved alcoholism and lack of work has helped Amit Sadh become a better actor
Actor Amit Sadh, who has been quite upfront about his struggles with alcohol, says his low phase came back to haunt him when he played a cop in the web series Breathe. Is he reminded of that low phase when he is offered such roles on the screen?
“I have no shame or regret in sharing with people or in my interviews what I’ve gone through in life. There’s a line I read many years ago, ‘Think of people as wounded animals’. So basically, we all have darkness or have dealt with darkness at some point of our lives.”
And it was people that came to his rescue when he sought a way out of that dark phase. “I’m very lucky and fortunate, and grateful to numerous people, books, life coaches, psychiatrists, friends, foes, people who understood and those who didn’t, people who’ve been nice, people who’ve been rude, people who humiliated and people who loved me — I am just grateful to everyone for this life,” the Kai Po Che (2013) actor says.
The healing has taken place for the Sarkar 3 (2017) and Gold actor, but he says that he does need to go back whenever he does “complex roles”. These parts, he says, “need some emotional memory to reflect to, I definitely have a big pool of information of emotions to reflect upon. They say creative people have messy minds, so I am one messy mind.”
Just as he makes no bones about his alcoholism, Amit has never shied away from admitting that he had to work in certain projects only for survival and to be able to afford things. Are things shaping up better now? “Don’t we all work for our bread and butter, to pay rent and EMIs and put food on the table for our loved ones, for our pets and always kind of hope to make more that we can share with more people who are less privileged? So, how am I any different? I am like you, the person who is reading this. So, I never felt the need to shy away from acknowledging anything.”
However, Sadh adds that acting isn’t just his profession but also his passion. “I feel it’s a privilege to go to work or to create and do what you truly love. It just makes things easier and more exciting. For me, it’s a privilege to be an actor. It’s a job that you do for which people appreciate you and praise you. This is the only job in their world that does that.”
Complex roles need some emotional memory to reflect [on], I definitely have a big pool of information of emotions to reflect upon. They say creative people have messy minds, so I am one messy mind.
AMIT SADH ACTOR