He had already made an impression in films like Gurgaon, Kaalakaandi and Laal Rang. Now Akshay Oberoi has not only scored the biggest hit of his career with Fighter but has also earned a lot of praise for his portrayal of Basheer ‘Bash’ Khan, one of the main characters of the Siddharth Anand film that stars Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone and Anil Kapoor. A t2 chat with Akshay, an alumnus of the prestigious Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York.

Fighter is already in the Rs 100-crore club and is your biggest hit. What have the last few days been like?

It is hard to process and describe in words. I am still trying to figure out what it all means. I have been working for a very long time but I have never been part of a movie that has made this much money and has created so much buzz all at once. It is just another day in the life of Hrithik (Roshan) and Deepika (Padukone), but for me, it is something different. Before Fighter, I had never experienced this large-scale love and this large-scale watching.

My films like Gurgaon and Laal Rang are now spoken about in posterity because they are good films. But when they were released in theatres, no one had heard about them. Later when they came on TV and Netflix, then people started watching them. The critics, of course, watch it immediately but the fans get to know about it later. Gurgaon has become cult over time, and so has Laal Rang.

But what Fighter has done for me feels surreal. How much money it makes is for the trade and the media to see. But how often do we all unanimously say a commercial film is good? That rarely happens, but with Fighter, it has. I am very grateful for that.

It must be also special for you because your character Basheer aka Bash is the emotional pivot around which Fighter is built...

It feels nice that people say they have tears in their eyes about what happens to my character. That means that I have left a mark in people’s hearts and that is all an actor wants. You want your characters to connect. And, of course, in such a huge commercial star vehicle like Fighter, to have that kind of impact on an audience and that kind of screen time is very, very cool.

I am not in denial of where I stand in this business. I know exactly where I am, which is why I have survived these many years. So for me, the kind of actor I am, the kind of journey I have had, to have that impact and that emotional pivot, as you called it, is pretty cool.

What were your biggest learnings from being on this set?

The learning is that no matter how small or how big budgeted a film is, there is the same passion at work. When you are working with these big stars and big directors and big money, it is the same amount of passion that goes into making a film like Gurgaon whose budget was probably around Rs 4-crore. It shows me that our business, this village of actors and directors and producers we call Hindi cinema... everybody is here to make a difference.

I always wondered what it was like to work with big directors and big actors and when I got there, I realised it is all the same. Anil Kapoor is as hungry an actor as I am. Hrithik Roshan would wake up before me and get to the gym. Siddharth Anand was always trying to figure out till the last minute what was the best way to shoot a scene. It sounds very naive, but that was my biggest takeaway.

How did the film happen to you?

I did a show called Flesh in which I played a transgender character. It was produced by Siddharth Anand and I played a vicious antagonist who does horrible things. The show didn’t do so well and, at that time, Mamta (Anand, Siddharth’s wife and co-producer) told me that they would come back to me with a project that would get me a much wider audience.

After that, Siddharth went on to make huge films like War and Pathaan. But Mamta and he kept their word and when they were making Fighter, they called me for this character who was so lovable, loyal and endearing. This was in direct contrast to Taj, the character I played in Flesh who is so gory and gruesome and does such despicable things on screen.
In Fighter, they gave me Bash, a beautiful memorable character, in a business where everyone is ready to stereotype you.

Bash is such a cool, charming guy and he is the one who elicits the maximum empathy from the audience. Is he like you in any way?

His innocence. I am still very naive and I think everybody is kind and nice. I have an optimistic view of the world and when negative things happen, I get very rattled. I still live in this bubble of innocence.

That is why it was sort of easy to play Bash. He is probably the most patriotic in the team, he martyrs himself. I feel very connected to him. Bash came to me quite easily, I got his rhythm pretty quickly.

There is a lot of action in the film. Did you have as much fun doing it as we did watching it?

So much fun! I loved every second of being on this set. I am anyway someone who loves being on set, I love the energy at work. Fighter was extra special because it felt like our childhood dream of flying jets coming alive. It was very exciting.

I had a great time doing the action in this movie. I wish we were still making it. I feel sad that it is over because it was cool to pretend like I was a fighter pilot for a year (smiles).

What kind of prep did you have to undergo for the part?

The Indian Air Force really supported us. Sid wanted it to be authentic and realistic even though it was a larger-than-life commercial movie. The Indian Air Force appreciated Sid’s vision. We asked them the most inane questions, like: ‘How do I stand?’ ‘How do I address my senior?’ We had some of the top fighter pilots in our country answering the most basic questions from a bunch of actors very patiently. No one ever said: ‘Arre, kya poonch raha hain?!’

We had a team of Air Force pilots who were in charge of watching the footage and making sure that nothing was inauthentic about how we were standing, how we were walking and how we were talking. Even the call signs were authentic and all of it was approved by the Air Force. So the prep was in the details. As actors, we stood there and observed everything we could because we had access to it. We shot in real Air Force bases with real pilots.

Your social media bio says ‘Chasing the dream around the world.’ Would you say that some part of that dream, given the kind of work you have done over the last few years, has been realised?

It is just starting to feel like I am living it. I have been running so hard and so fast and for so long trying to get to this point. Once I am kind of here, the ambition has just grown more.

Now that I have shared screen space in this big movie with these big stars, I am hungrier. Now I want to do more, I want more people to know who I am. I want my work to permeate into the audience more and to be a part of the zeitgeist.

That ambition suddenly grew. Earlier I was like: ‘God, as long as I can pay my bills as an actor, I will be happy.’ Then it shifted to saying: ‘If I can be part of one successful movie, that would be cool.’ And now that I am here in this big commercial movie, the hunger is even more. Now the hunger is not only for the work but for more appreciation and for more people getting to know who I am and to become a household name.

Priyanka Roy