Saqib Saleem: The power of the web is outstanding

Saqib Saleem’s debut digital show Rangbaaz, which was streamed towards the end of 2018, brought glad tidings for the actor. Especially, after being panned for his performance in Race 3. Set in the 1990s, Rangbaaz, has him playing a 25-year-old guy from Gorakhpur, who becomes the deadliest gangster. It was his first outing as a dark character and the Bombay Talkies actor has nailed it. Critics have called it a new awakening for the actor. Here, Saqib tells us why it was important for him to do this series and how the role took him out of his comfort zone. 

Your last big release Race 3 did not fetch you good reviews. Is that why you decided to do a web series?

All my six films put together never made the kind of money that Race 3 did! But for the first time in my life, I got bad reviews. When Rangbaaz came to me, I didn’t want to let go of the opportunity. I thought I need to act now, too much of looking good and showing off six-pack abs had happened. I channelled all my anger against the criticism into the performance and people have loved me. It has got 9.3 on the IMDB rating, which is unheard of. 

What prompted you to take up Rangbaaz?

Most of the roles that I have done so far have been in a similar vein — a child-like character, a chocolate boy — all in an urban milieu. In Rangbaaz, I am actually playing a different character (a gangster from the heartland). This was the right time to do it. With the kind of films that I was watching where all the actors were pushing their game, one needed to put one’s best foot forward. Ayushmann (Khurrana) and Varun (Dhawan) are doing interesting work. When you see people your age doing good work, more than feeling jealous, you get inspired by the choices they make. You feel now you need to change the rhythm and find a different space. I was lucky that ZEE5 thought of me. It is an unconventional casting, I would have never thought of casting myself if I was making this! I was surprised because usually in the industry they stereotype you and offer you something in a similar zone.

What was it about the character that appealed to you?

There were two-three things. When I was growing up, I really wanted to play a gangster. In my first interview in 2011, I had said my dream role is to play one. I think it was because I had grown up watching films like Satya, Company and Good Fellas. I also realised that when I am playing something as different as Shivprakash Shukla (his character in Rangbaaz), his sense of right and wrong is completely different from my sense of right and wrong. So, it becomes challenging for me as an actor. I genuinely thought I was too much in my comfort zone earlier. I had to figure out if I had something else in me as an actor. Also, after the kind of reviews, I got for Race 3, I wanted to do something unusual for people to take notice. When I got panned, I realised that there is a certain kind of expectation from me. They expect me to do content-driven stuff and that was a learning. 

What kind of prep did you do for the role?

Jitni body banayi thi na (for Race 3) saari utarni padi. I have a paunch in Rangbaaz. It is set in the ’90s and at that point, there was no concept of six pack abs. It would have looked weird if I took off my shirt and had a six pack! Anyway, the physicality is a superficial transformation. It was learning the dialect and figuring out the body language that was more of a learning. I am an urban boy, so to play someone from the heartland I had to be different. That took a while. And, for the first time, I created a look by sporting that moustache. It helped me understand the character more — it’s the smaller things that help more than the bigger changes. Also, I told my director that before he starts shooting, I want to go and stay in Gorakhpur for 10 days. I roamed around the streets of Lucknow and interacted with the local people to get the accent right. 

And it has paid off...

Yes, I am feeling relaxed. I was extremely nervous ke kya hoga, bahut gaaliyan padegi because I have tried to do something different. But I got so many messages from people, especially from those in Gorakhpur saying they liked the show and my performance! What this show made me understand is that the power of the web is outstanding. I have done six-seven films, but the number of messages I have got for the web show is 10 times more than that for my films.