Radhe: Here’s How Gautam Gulati Convinced Director Prabhudheva About His Skills, And It Has A Heath Ledger Connection-EXCLUSIVE
Gautam Gulati, who was recently seen in Salman Khan’s Radhe, shares the story of how he got the film and convinced director Prabhudheva about his skills
Working with Salman Khan is a dream for any actor that enters into the Hindi film industry. The actor has kickstarted many careers and given push to a lot of newcomers as well. One of those is actor and Bigg Boss 8 winner, Gautam Gulati, who was recently seen as one of the three villains, Girgit, in Salman’s Eid release Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai.
Gautam raves about his mentor Salman and says that he is a very giving, selfless and an amazing person. The actor goes on to recall the story of how he got the chance to act opposite Salman in Radhe. “A few years after Bigg Boss, we met one day and Salman bhai hugged me tightly. We got on to talking and he told me that he is doing a film and there is a negative character in that that he asked if I wanted to do,” Gautam shares, adding that initially he was in disbelief about what Salman meant by that. “So, he clarified again that it’s a villainous role. He then asked me one more time and I told him that I love villains more than the heroes and said yes immediately. After that, he put me in touch with his team and literally, the work started the next day itself. My look was being worked upon, they started working on my clothes and made me meet Prabhu sir.”
Even though Gautam had won over Salman, he still had to convince Prabhudheva, the director of the film, and it took some time and one look test. “Prabhu sir didn’t have faith in me initially when he took a first look at me. I had long hair at the time and he found me to have a little too much chocolaty look. In his own style, Prabhu sir said, “Gautam…Chocolaty…Villain…How?”,” he laughs.
So, to persuade him, Gautam gave a little instantaneous test. “I did a five-minute act of Heath Ledger’s from The Dark Knight in front of Prabhu sir’s assistant director. They wanted to see my villainous side as they found me too chocolaty and it was a challenge for me,” he reveals, adding that they told him that he was already selected but they wanted to see his negative side and he could do anything. “So, I did that act and said Heath Ledger’s dialogues and after seeing that, Prabhu sir’s reaction was of surprise. He couldn’t believe it if I had done that myself. After that, Salman sir suggested my hair cut for the film, we started working on my look and work on the film started,” Gautam concludes.
Image source: Instagram/heathledger, SpotboyE archives