Talat Aziz opens up about being part of Scam 2003, his scenes being cut from Hansal Mehta's show | Exclusive

Director Hansal Mehta's show Scam 2003: The Telgi Story has impressed the masses, and it has been considered a valuable addition to the Scam series. The crime drama stars Gagan Dev Riar as Abdul Karim Telgi, the mastermind behind the Rs 30,000 crore stamp paper fraud. Scam 2003 is the second instalment after Pratik Gandhi-starrer Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story (2020).

Apart from Gagan, Sana Amin Sheikh, Bhavana Balsawar, Sameer Dharmadhikari, and Talat Aziz won praise for showcasing their impressive acting chops in the series. DNA India got in touch with veteran singer and actor Talat Aziz for an exclusive interaction, and the artiste opened up about his experience working with the talented team. 

In the first part of a 5-episode series, Talat plays Nafisa's (Sana) father Shaukat. In the conversation, Talat revealed that his character graph has been largely edited, and a few dramatic, confrontational moments have been chopped to keep the series centred around Abdul Karim Telgi. 

In the show, Abdul and Nafisa's love story has been kept limited to background narration. However, there is a huge confrontational scene between Shaukat with Nafisa, where the latter tries to convince her father to accept Abdul as his son-in-law. "Shuakat is the person who brings Abdul to Bombay, he gives him a job in his guest house. However, he senses that Abdul has a different side of his personality, and thus when Nafisa comes to my character about the nikah, there is a huge confrontation between them." Talat further asserted, "Many scenes of my character got edited, and the relationship of Shaukat with his daughter has not been shown, as they wanted to narrate Abdul's story." Talat further added that there are a few dramatic moments of his character with Abdul and Nafisa, but they didn't make it to the final cut. 

Although Talat character has been edited largely, he is happy with the show and the reception he got for his role. "Hansal, Tushar (Hiranandani, director), and Gagan have all done great. The hard work, and the vision show on the screen. I've no regrets about the length of the role. I've been getting calls from all around, praising my performance, and suggesting I should do more films and series. Many fans want me to be on-camera as they feel that I have a lot to give."  

This year, Talat was also been seen in Manoj Bajpayee-starrer Gulmohar. The veteran artiste is geared to explore his acting career, but he only has one condition, he wishes to have significant roles. In the upcoming projects, Talat will be seen in Hrithik Roshan, Anil Kapoor, and Deepika Padukone-starrer Fighter. Scam 2003 is currently streaming on Sony Liv.