Amit Sadh to play Haryanvi in Guddu Rangeela

By Subhash K. Jha -

January 3, 2014 - 10:20 AM IST

2013 has been the year of a miraculous career turn-over for the talented Amit Sadh. After years of struggle, including a disastrous movie debut in 2010 in Ram Gopal Varma's Phoonk 2, Amit suddenly came into his own with Abhishek Kapoor's Kai Po Che.

Now he has just completed a rom-com Runningshaadi.com with Tapsee Pannu where he plays a boy who runs away from Patna to Punjab at age 15. Amit now moves to Subhash Kapoor's Guddu Rangeela where he plays an oddball Haryanvi character.

Amit Sadh to play Haryanvi in Guddu Rangeela

Says the belatedly feted actor, "From a Bihari to a Haryanvi. I have to now do a Haryanvi accent for Subhash Kapoor's film. I also have to stand up to an actor of Arshad Warsi's caliber. I play an absolutely wacked-out character. We start shooting in January."

Offers were galore after Kai Po Che but Amit played it safe. "I waited so long for good things to happen to my career. I didn't want to mess it up now when I was finally noticed. I am not greedy. I am not into acting for money. I still live in a rented house and drive around in a second-hand car. What Kai Po Che did to my career is beyond expression. I owe the director Abhishek Kapoor this new lease of life."

Even now after success, Amit consults Abhishek on all career decisions. "He is a friend for life. People ask why he isn't doing another film with me. I say, that is such a frivolous way of defining friendship. Kaam do toh dost varna nahin? No way. I'd rather have Gattu (Abhishek) as a friend than someone I look towards for work."

Tell him that Sushant Singh Rajput reaped all the benefits of the Kai Po Che success, and Amit protests, "I don't look at my success in Kai Po Che in comparison with the other actors in the film. I look at it from the perspective of what I was going through before Kai Po Che. I was completely lost, personally and professionally. I even did Bigg Boss in 2010."

People saw Amit crying constantly. Yes, I was a crybaby on Bigg Boss because I was only 22 and therefore just a baby. Inside Bigg Boss emotions are constantly heightened. It's not a normal place to be in. On top of that I was told my girlfriend Neeru Bajwa had left me. Can you imagine, she was my life! And to be told inside there where I had no way of ascertaining the truth, that she had left me...it shattered me."

Amit says Neeru Bajwa's decision to leave him left him bereft. "All of a sudden my life fell apart. She was the only family that I had. She transformed me from a boy into a man. When she left me, my life fell apart. I had to start from scratch. I used the money I got for Bigg Boss to go to the Lee Strasberg acting school in New York where I learnt to be single again. I moved in with four American friends, roughed it out."

Amit says he is still single. "And I like it that way. Of course there are rumours the minute I am seen with a girl. While I was shooting in Punjab with Tapsee Pannu I went out for dinner with her. The next day we were a couple in the papers. But the truth is, I am not seeing anyone."