Actor Sidhant Gupta is revelling in the good reviews for his portrayal of former Indian prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in the web show Freedom At Midnight. “Thankfully I’m just finding my way into meeting these directors that are seeing these great characters in me. It feels like I’m doing what I came here to do. Of course, it’s a dream,” he says.
In today’s political scenario, where a lot of political projects are considered propaganda, he believes the show, set in the pre-partition era, didn’t add in the narrative, and that’s what appealed to him. “When I read the script, it felt right. It felt like this seems the truth on paper, and when I did my research, all the facts and all the reality checks of that time, everything just aligned. So, I knew that this was the right thing to do. I was just amazed that our writers had really captured that essence of those people who were misunderstood along the way. That felt like the greatest risk and the greatest responsibility of my life. These are the superheroes of our history, there are no bigger characters than them,” he asserts.
Getting a chance to play a 56-year-old Nehru on screen at the age of 35, Sidhant Gupta considers it a huge privilege. He says, “I fell in love with Jawaharlal Nehru and what he stood for. But I saw there were a lot of weird things that people keep saying about him. It’s not respectful enough and these men deserve all the respect, and that became my mission to portray him in a way that earned him all the respect possible.”
After Jubilee last year and before the release of Freedom At Midnight, the actor disappeared from the public eye for almost a year-and-a half. Ask him why and he says, “Jubilee gave me all the acceptance and love. Why that happened was because I was able to perform with all my heart, and that needs a lot. It requires you to just invest everything that you have in you, towards the character. So, all the other aspects of wanting to be seen in that time in the middle and keeping up with appearances take a backseat. I needed to just disconnect in order to get things right for my role in Freedom At Midnight. My understanding is that if a project comes in which makes a mark, then everything falls into place like it happened with Jubilee. So, it’s fine if I disappear because when I appear, I’ll appear right.”
With both these shows, the web medium has given Sidhant a huge push and recognition in his career. Does he agree? “OTT has given this entire country a big boost. Now we’re suddenly experiencing the cinematic delight in the smallest as well as the biggest stories. Otherwise, our senses were prone to just a very average way of looking at cinema. Not to demean anyone, but there are more opportunities and thus more talented people are coming in. People are more aware of great performances, and appreciate it,” he responds.