Aditya Uppal has emerged as a surprise star with his performance as ASP Omar Haider of the Lyari Task Force in Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar: The Revenge. While he made quite an impression in the first part of the duology, he stole the spotlight in the second installment. But stepping into the role of ASP Omar was not a piece of cake, and he went through extensive research, including gun training, to get into the skin of his character.
Talking about how he became Omar, he shared, “Mukesh Chhabra sir reached out to me for the character of Omar Haider in Dhurandhar. He told me that the look matches really well and I should go for it. I did some auditions and then I was finally selected.”
“I did go through a lot of YouTube content and the material given by the editorial team. I tried to understand the characters’ views, mannerisms, and backgrounds and the way they talk. He is a writer, and I tried to understand the arc of the personality. There were some scenes that needed special preparation, especially scenes where I had a gun in my hand, so I had to go through gun training,” he added.
Since his character was part of the Lyari Task Force headed by SP Chaudhary Aslam, played by Sanjay Dutt, most of Aditya’s scenes were with him. A big fan of Sanjay, Aditya had an incredible time shooting with him. He said, “I had a lovely experience working with Sanjay Dutt, sir. My first interaction was with him, where I told him I was his big fan and loved his films Saajan and Khalnayak.”
“Working with him was a delightful experience and a dream come true, and I was extremely facilitated by his personality and dialogue delivery. Certain words in the film were situational, and he delivered them so well that they made it feel so real,” he added.
Aditya is all praise for the director of the film, Aditya Dhar. He called him his mentor and confessed that he has shaped his approach on both the personal and professional fronts. “He has taught me nuances of acting and filmmaking and how an actor needs to understand his shots and how everything needs to be done. He makes sure that the actors are comfortable. He is a man who is taking us to the cinema, which we see internationally,” he said.
“This I would say was like a paid two years of training school. I am sure good work will come my way, and I would love to take it up and do workshops and further train myself and make sure my audiences are well entertained. Overall he is a great mentor and a guide,” he added.
Aditya has donned many hats, including that of an actor, host, writer, theater director, and brand strategist, in his career. He has worked on different mediums, and his filmography also includes movies like Omerta and Break Ke Baad. He was a part of his school theatre group and even performed in nukkad nataks. It got him interested in taking it up professionally. He said, “Even in college I joined a theater group, and we used to do a lot of street skits on climate awareness. They were basically spoofs of Bollywood films, and we converted them into meaningful cinema so that the right message is conveyed.”
“Then I went to Kingdom of Dreams, which was a great journey, and while working there, I got an opportunity to work on a film called Omerta, directed by Hansal Mehta, starring Rajkummar Rao. I played a small cameo, a terrorist called Abu,” he added.
He is now looking to film to get good, impactful roles. “I want to approach those roles with new nuances and show something new to my audiences and not just stereotypical types of roles. I would love to explore humor, comedy, and action. Looking forward to having some great collaborations with the Bollywood film industry,” Aditya ended.
