Adarsh Gourav: To live and workshop with them can be daunting

Pics/Instagram

Adarsh Gourav couldn't have imagined a better end to 2023. Or a better start to this year. The actor has been winning praise for his honest performance in Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, which dropped on Netflix in the last week of December. He has little time to bask in the love, as he is set to begin shooting for the television series, Alien, on which Ridley Scott serves as the executive producer. But movies like Kho Gaye Hum Kahan are hard to shake off, and Gourav acknowledges that it has stayed with him. "When I moved to the city as a 13-year-old, I felt every beat of what my character Neil feels. I saw how materialism hits you in Mumbai. I felt insecure, inadequate and envious at times," he recalls.

A still from Kho Gaye Hum Kahan

Through his character, director Arjun Varain Singh explores not only this generation's hustling spirit, but also their silent frustrations. "I love how the character makes class divide a conversation. The scene where Neil is reprimanded for using the gym shower, and the board reads ‘Staff not allowed', stuck with me. New buildings in Mumbai have dedicated lifts for staff. I find it humiliating. The quiet rebel in me always uses the staff lift in those buildings. It's my way of saying a silent ‘F''' you' to people who think this is okay. We have been desensitised and don't make enough noise about class divide."

Ridley Scott

Gourav's reason to be part of the Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ananya Panday-starrer went beyond its powerful script. It was the joy of playing a city-bred character after a spate of small-town boy roles in The White Tiger (2021), Guns & Gulaabs (2023) and more. "People associate me with violent roles, with characters who belong to Tier-2, -3 cities. It was refreshing to get a character that I associate with myself. I want to portray characters that help me transform emotionally and physically."

Gourav adds, "Despite being a middle-class family, my parents ensured they took us on vacations, and I've travelled across the length and breadth of India. I have changed 13 houses in the city, from Dahisar to Amboli, and went to an upscale school like Podar International School. I have observed a lot of the worlds in India, and rarely get a script where I can't recognise the character. I've seen every character and met them, briefly."

Doing international projects then helps him go out of the realm of familiarity and embrace unknown characters. He is set to join the unit of Alien in Bangkok later this month. "While working in the West, there are so many things that I have absolutely no idea about. I read up on it and practice my accents in my free time. I might not sound exactly like a person from Chicago, but I work so hard that sometimes I surprise myself by getting into the final shortlist," he laughs. "[Before I shot the first schedule] in June, I had never worked with people from London, New Zealand, and America. To live, workshop with them and know that these are your people for the next six months can be daunting. But I met some wonderful people and can't wait to reunite with them."