Mumbai-based model Sahil Shroff will make his movie debut today, with Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Don 2.Shroff struggled for a break for three years before he landed the plum role of a cop, who helps Priyanka Chopra chase Don.
"I play Arjun, and had to do some research for my character. Farhan (Akhtar, director) gave me inputs on my character," he says.
Farhan had a certain look in mind for the character and Sahil fitted the bill. Still, he had to go through three levels of rigorous auditions.
Shooting started four months later. "If you are waiting for four months for your first shot, you tend to be nervous. Later, I was okay. The nervousness turned into good energy in 10 minutes as soon as I was on the sets of Don 2," Shroff says.
Sahil says Farhan is an awesome director.
"He is funny as a director, he is very talented and he knows exactly what he wants. He makes your life easy as an actor. He inspires his actors to be better. But if you are shooting from 5 am in freezing, minus-15 degrees temperature in Berlin, anyone can lose their cool!" he exclaims.
Sahil also found it "fantastic" to work with Shah Rukh Khan in the film.
"He has no attitude, no airs, he is very calm and relaxed and lots of fun to work with. He has been in the industry for more than 20 years and his experience is huge but he does not mind imparting it. We played football on his play station," he says.
There were some scenes that Sahil found tough to do, especially those that involved motion, and saying his dialogues at the same time.
"I had not done a lot of movement scenes so that was tough for me, but Shah Rukh helped me. He is a theatre actor so he knows how to do it well. And, so, after a few tries I got it," he says. Some training at Anupam Kher's acting school also helped.
Before he landed Don 2, Sahil did advertisements for Lux with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, for the Tata Indica Xeta and Cadbury's Eclairs.
