Fighter’s villain Rishabh Sawhney chats with us about how he bagged the role in the Siddharth Anand film, bulking up to play Hrithik Roshan’s nemesis and turning into a fearsome character.

How did you land the role of Azhar Akhtar in Fighter?

Rishabh Sawhney: Casting Director Mukesh Chhabra sir's team contacted me for an audition. They didn't tell me it was for Fighter. They told me it’s a film and it’s the villain in the film. Towards the end of June 2022, I got a call for another round of auditions. A week after the second audition, I got a call saying, Siddharth sir wanted to meet me. On July 7, I had my first meeting with Siddharth sir.

How did that meeting go?

Rishabh Sawhney: In that meeting, sir told me, ‘We really liked your audition. But you need to realise that this is a very big-scale film and you are going to be put up against Hrithik, Deepika, Anil sir, and a whole team of fighter pilots.’ I am the only villain in the film. So, I had to look big, not only in size but my stature had to look like I could take on those people. His exact words were, ‘You imagine that you are Thanos and you are facing The Avengers.’

He said we would be meeting 10-15 days later and asked me to gain some weight by then. Because I was modelling before this, I used to stay really lean. I was around 68-69 kg. And in those 15 days, I gained 6-7 kg. From August 2022 till January 2023, we were prepping and the shoot started in February 2023.

Your look in Fighter is menacing. How was the look worked upon before it was locked?

Rishabh Sawhney: They had already planned ‘the red eye’. I think it was Siddharth sir’s idea. In terms of the hair and the beard, we did seven-eight different look tests before we landed upon this look with straight hair and no beard. Actually, I showed him a picture of mine from one of the magazine editorials. It had straight hair, and in a way, I was looking very evil. Sid sir said, ‘Okay, this is something that we can explore.’ Eventually, we went with straight hair, red eye and pellet marks on my face to show that this man had been involved in a lot of wars or fights before this.

What was the motive behind having the red eye for your character?

Rishabh Sawhney: It was mainly because my character needed to look menacing. We’ve not shown the backstory of my character. It was all supposed to be part of an accident during one of the wars where I had lost a part of my cornea and there was a bomb blast near my face. Hence, I had those pellet marks on my face. That was probably the motive behind the red eye.

How did you work internally to play such a cruel character?

Rishabh Sawhney: Acting coach Rachit Singh helped me get into the mentality of the character. He made me do different exercises. For two months before the shoot, I was not watching anything but YouTube videos of people being attacked in Syria and Gaza and all these wars that are going on.

I was watching that and thinking what are we doing in our lives? We are sitting here comfortably complaining about little things when there are children in parts of the world not getting food. They don’t know what stuffed toys are. The only toys they can think of are guns. They have not seen a life without war. That was very moving and disturbing. I get goosebumps when I speak about it.

One more thing that Rachit told me to do in the last week before the shoot was to not speak. ‘Don't utter a word. If you have to get something, order it online. If you have to speak to your parents, just communicate over text. Just trust this process and it will come out,’ he said.

The brief given to me while signing the film was that I needed to look menacing more than anything. And after watching Fighter, I got so many messages from people saying this exact thing, ‘You look so menacing on screen’. That made me really happy that I could deliver.

What was your first interaction with Hrithik Roshan like?

Rishabh Sawhney: The first interaction was very short; it was when we had to shoot a very small scene in Kashmir. His scene was finishing and then they had to shoot my scene. Before I started my scene, I just introduced myself to Hrithik sir. That’s all. Because I was so much in my character and my character demanded that I stay in that zone. So, I was trying hard not to get distracted by the fact that I was in the same space as Hrithik Roshan or sharing the same screen as him.

I did not speak much at that time also because I did not know him personally or how he worked. Some actors don’t like to be disturbed before shooting. I kept to myself. I was only talking when I was in the frame to shoot. I was starstruck initially, of course, but then I had to calm myself down by saying, ‘Chill. You'll get a chance to talk to him after the film. Right now, you are Azhar, he is Patty, and you are his nemesis.’

But then again, it’s Hrithik Roshan, man. When he walks in, he walks in with that aura. Throughout the film when we shot, he was too sweet. Neither he nor Siddharth sir made me feel like a new actor doing my first film. They were very friendly and welcoming.

What was it like to do action for the first time?

Rishabh Sawhney: When we started the action sequence back in May 2023, we did a couple of shots. Action director Parvez Shaikh asked me whether I had done action before. I told him that I had only watched wrestling and action in films. He said, ‘It doesn’t look like you’re doing action for the first time.’

Somehow that body language was ingrained in me and because I was carrying the attitude, I was confident that I would pull it off. I did most of the stunts on my own. Body doubles were used only for two stunts. I got a lot of bruises during the shoot but I couldn’t feel the pain. I was just enjoying the whole journey.

What was your most challenging scene to shoot?

Rishabh Sawhney: I have been a very fit person. I’ve been playing sports since I was a kid. I was working as a civil engineer on construction sites where I used to be in the sun for the longest time.

But when we were shooting the action sequence where I came out with a gun shooting, that building was burning, and we were shooting in May in Bombay. It was hot as hell. We did a couple of takes. After the final take, I just kept the gun down. I was feeling breathless and soon I fainted. Heat stroke and dehydration at the same time. I somehow went to the vanity van. After resting for a while, I came back to shoot the remaining portions for the day.

Also, when we were shooting the last part where Patty says to Azhar, ‘Atankwadi hai tu’ and he jumps towards the helicopter, that was a very challenging shot to get. And the best thing was when we got it right, Siddharth sir and Hrithik sir praised me on the set. Doing my stunts on my own was memorable for me. That is something that I enjoyed.

Describe that moment when you saw yourself on the big screen.

Rishabh Sawhney: After Empire (Disney+ Hotstar), I was continuously auditioning for a lot of stuff. I was getting shortlisted also but for some reason, things were not panning out. But I had this intuition that something would materialise soon. And then Fighter happened.

My first look was revealed in the Heer Aasmani song. At that time, I was partying abroad with my friends. I did not know that they were going to release the look in that song. When the song was released in India, I got a message from one of the ADs to watch it. I played the song and when it got over and my look was revealed, I was shocked looking at myself because I was like, ‘Okay, now I’m there on the screen’.

I come from a modelling background. I have always seen myself look beautiful on screen. When I saw myself in Fighter while dubbing, I looked very ruthless. I was like, ‘I’m looking so ugly’. At the same time, I knew that it was the best thing for my character.

When I met Hrithik sir one day, he said, ‘Have you seen your look in the film, your entry scene?’ I said, ‘No sir, I haven't seen it yet.’ He said, ‘You should have a look at it. Siddharth has done an amazing job.’ When I saw it, I was like, bro, are you kidding me? What a beautiful way to introduce my character. This guy has come to wreak havoc. That was my reaction, looking at myself on screen.