Amit Sadh plays the self-obsessed, blue-blooded Raghubir in the recently released Gold and is receiving positive reviews on his performance as he charms as the royal who is not used to letting go of the wheels. His physique, body language, the way he speaks, every little move ties in neatly with his character. The actor does not want to be a part of the rat race and does not fear being typecast as long he is pursuing his passion of making movies; he is hungry for work and his humble, down-to-earth, passionate and hardworking character makes him our Prime Persona.
Sadh started his acting career in 2002 with the TV show Kyun Hota Hai Pyarrr. Apart from doing several fiction shows, he also participated in reality shows Bigg Boss (winner) and Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi and was a well-known face on television. He tried his luck in films with his debut horror film Phoonk 2 in 2010 which was followed by his box office hit Kai Po Che alongside Rajkumar Rao and Sushant Singh Rajput. Even after few disappointments along the way, landing roles next to Salman Khan in Sultan and Amitabh Bachchan in Sarkar 3 has definitely accelerated his career over the last two years.
He is still basking in the success of his web series Breathe, also starring R. Madhavan in the lead, and has etched his name as a potential actor in the industry.
Life was never really a cake walk for this talented actor, he went through severe emotional ups and downs, partly after his breakup, and was reportedly on drugs and alcohol in his growing years. ‘I do not shy away from accepting that I had a troubled past, but in the journey of coming out of that dark phase, I understand humans better. I am less judgmental and more compassionate. I learned empathy and forgiveness, and that gives me confidence as a person,’ says the Sultan star about the troubled phase of his life. His career neither began with a silver spoon in his mouth, he worked as a security guard in the Benetton showroom, but nevertheless, he has always been humble with a jolly nature. He took his security guard friends for a Chinese food treat with his first salary of 900 and ended up splurging out the money in three days. With his first big pay cheque, he treated himself with a leather jacket from Diesel.
Speaking about his role and the amount of hard work put into it he quoted, ‘My character is prince, royalty, blue blood; he has a sense of entitlement. Later, when he meets the other players and the coach, he realises that the game and the country are bigger than him. He has his own catharsis; he becomes mature.’ He continues, ‘Sunny (Kaushal, co-star) and I have played hockey for the most part in the film and hence we had to train the maximum, for about six months. We trained with Yuvraj Walmiki (striker of Indian hockey team) and Australian coach Michael Nobbs. We had to do a lot of Pilates besides cardio and I changed my diet because I needed to lose 10 kgs to look like a hockey player; they have a bony structure. We would practice day and night. I also had to work on my dialect and get the Awadhi accent right. Also, the way people spoke and walked – they were a bit slow in those days. And since Raghubir was such a great hockey player, I had to get that style. We have worked very hard and I hope it is seen on the screen. It is a beautiful role.’
‘It was a tough film for me so I can’t say that I had a blast shooting. Training for hockey was very difficult. Hockey may look like an easy game, but it’s not. I have played football and other games, but this is actually a back bender. The first few days of training were quite exhausting. After practising for several hours we would have a two-hour session with the physiotherapist, the needle therapy and again at 4 am, we were back to playing hockey. We would fight among ourselves that who would want to go to the physiotherapist first or whose leg was hurting the most. So, there was nothing good about it. But I miss the shooting days,’ shared the ardent bike lover as he candidly reminisced in the past.
Amit is hugely proud to be part of the ensemble cast in Gold mainly because of the reason that his father, Ram Chandra Dogra, was a national-level hockey player and was very much an aristocrat by temperament and generous to a fault. The sequence in the movie where he takes off all his clothes and donates it to a roadside destitute is exactly what his father did throughout his lifetime. Regrettably, Amit lost his father when he was only 16. Over pouring with emotions when he held the script in his hands he recalled his father, ‘He wanted me to become a hockey player. He didn’t live to see me fulfil his dream. But somewhere that dream stayed alive in my subconscious. When I heard my role in Gold, I wept openly. It was my father’s character come to life… I have never felt more possessive of a part. I hope my father has somewhere seen what I’ve done. That’s him I am playing in Gold.’
Helmed by Reema Kagti, Gold is based on the 1948 win of Indian hockey team as a free nation. It was the first Olympic win of India that made the players bring home the medal for their country. The film is garnering success.
