He has played the guy next door, a professor, a government officer, among other roles, and excelled at them. But when Naveen Kasturia got the opportunity to play a spy and do action, there was no way he would let it go. His latest show Salakaar was everything he hoped for — from riding bikes to wearing leather jackets, from doing action to expressing patriotism — it was a dream come true.
While the show received a mixed response, he remains unfazed. “We’ve all read the reviews; they’ve been pretty okay. A few have liked it, and a few have not. The response I’ve got is that people have been happy to see me in a different part,” he says, adding with a laugh, “A few of them have really liked it, especially my performance — but that’s true for all my shows!”
The actor, however, is clear that the credit doesn’t rest with him alone. “No one works in isolation. My character is written and shaped by my director [Faruk Kabir], so I can’t say it is all me. Faruk is a very passionate guy. I’ve not seen someone do so much homework. His shot division would be on paper, and he would enact scenes [if needed]. I just had to follow his approach.”
While he didn’t have to prep extensively for the five-episode JioHotstar series, one thing his director insisted on was bike training. Despite practising in Mumbai, his first day on set in Ladakh was no cakewalk. “The first day of the shoot I rode it in Ladakh, I dropped the bike. Mera confidence hil gaya. You can pretend to be a confident guy even if you are scared, but while riding a bike how would I do it? My mind was constantly on figuring out where the clutch and brake was. The day we finished all the bike scenes I remember being very happy,” shares Kasturia.
Salakaar arrives at a time when Pratik Gandhi’s Saare Jahan Se Accha has also hit Netflix. Ask if there were comparisons, and Kasturia disagrees. “I have seen it. I feel the two shows are very distinct. Ours is running on two different timelines. It’s barely a 2.5-hour show,” he says, adding, “I feel the treatment is very different, and that makes both unique.” He describes Salakaar as “a short, engaging series” and “an easy watch”.
On playing a patriot, he says, “While working on the show, I would listen to Ae Watan from Raazi (2018) to get into character. My character is on a mission to top Pakistan from building a nuclear weapon. But I felt patriotic even while doing Aspirants, but in a different way.”
Up Next
Having wrapped up the shoot of ‘Aspirants Season 3’, Kasturia is already prepping for his next role. “I am doing a light-hearted comedy. It will go on floors by mid-September.”