WORKING WITH SAM HARGRAVE HAS BEEN EXTREMELY UNIQUE, SAYS SUDIPTO BALAV

Jyothi Venkatesh

Sudipto Balav, who was recently seen in the film Extraction, says that he had an amazing time shooting the Sam Hargrave directorial. The actor adds that working with the director has also been incredible. “My experience of working with Sam Hargrave has been extremely unique and absolutely different as I have been wanting to do an action film for quite some time now. I did my own stunts. Doing this film with Sam was great and what I really learned from him is how you maintain your calm and composure while shooting some of the trickest, deadliest, and most elaborate acting scenes in a film of this magnitude. Of course, I am open to doing foreign cinema and when I mean foreign cinema, I just don’t mean Hollywood only. I am open to doing British films, Australian films, Korean films and, of course, as always I am open to doing Indian films, that’s where I belong,” he says.

The actor has been seen in varied projects and says that his journey has been exceptional. “My twenty-plus years journey in films has been extremely rewarding. I have been learning every single day with every single film. I have some great experience which I learn and I carry forward to my next film,” he says.The actor is known for his dark characters in Malayalam cinema and also played a rather dark role in extraction. However, he is not scared of getting typecast. “I think in today’s time the filmmakers globally are extremely evolved and they judge an actor by his or her ability to portray a certain character because every character that an actor portrays is the director's vision. When filmmakers see your ability from the perspective of that character, they are able to assess you as an actor. I think the whole trend of stereotyping actors doesn’t exist anymore,” he says.

Ask him who he would want to work with the future, and Sudipto says, “The filmmakers with whom I would like to collaborate with are, of course, Sam Hargrave, besides that there is Martis Scorsese, Tarantino, Manoj Nayak Shyamalan. I can go on and on. As far as Indian filmmakers are concerned, there is Anurag Kashyap, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Nagraj Manjule, Aashiq Abu, Vetrimaaran…these are few people on my wishlist.”There are a few actors who have always inspired Sudipto to work harder. “There been quite a few Indian actors who’ve approached towards reinventing themselves that have actually inspired me and helped me to improve and reinvent my craft. Topping the list definitely is Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, Mohanlal sir, Irrfan Khan, Mr. Prosenjit Chatterjee these are the names,” he says.