Atul Sabharwal

Jokes aside, the actor says the magic lay in Sabharwal’s script that is set in 1993 and revolves around Indian intelligence officers racing against time to prevent the Russian President’s assassination in India. In a way, the taut storytelling reminded him of renowned British author John le Carre’s works. “The interiority, the silences and the slow burn are reminiscent of John le Carre novels. It’s not about good versus bad guys. Everybody seems to be on the same side. But who is black, white and grey? It’s not driven by a plot; it’s shadowy, and as an audience, you don’t know whom to back. My character is at a desperate point in his career and propelled by a desire to win at all costs. For that, he is ready to bring everything and everyone down.”

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Since the beginning of his career, the actor has been a part of substance-driven stories—from Mr and Mrs Iyer (2002) to Chameli (2003), from Anuranan (2006) to Bulbbul (2020). Today, he finds one big change in the industry’s working. “There is demand for better writing. The industry has understood that besides two or three charismatic superstars of the past, who can pull off an average script, nobody else can. Writers, thank God, are getting primacy that they never had before.”