Good Luck Jerry actor Jaswant Singh Dalal: I am a big Vijay Sethupathi fan

Jaswant Singh Dalal is the Tom to Janhvi Kapoor’s Jerry in Sidharth Sengupta’s upcoming film Good Luck Jerry. The actor, whom we have seen as one of the murderous, patriarchal goons from NH10 and also as Bhuvan in the advertising drama Thinkistaan, plays a gangster with a soft corner for Janhvi’s character.

“When I first met Sidharth, he told me that the relationship between me and Janhvi in the film is like that between Tom and Jerry. My character is such that he has to make life miserable for Janhvi’s Jerry but also has a certain soft corner for her,” he says. “I play a character called Timmy which also sounds similar to Tom.”

Jaswant speaks fondly of his co-star Janhvi. “She is very humble, grounded and very honest. She might be a star-kid but she takes suggestions even from an actor who has just a line of dialogue.”

Acting wasn’t a childhood dream for Jaswant. “Till 1998 I wanted to join the Army,” he says. “My father was an Army officer and he wanted me to follow his footsteps. But after I went to college and joined the Drama Society, everything changed.”

We ask him how his father reacted when he told him about his acting ambitions. “He was very angry initially. After four to five months of a tussle between us, he agreed. My father won the Kargil war but this is the only ‘battle’ he lost. Later, he was extremely supportive,” he says.

Jaswant later went on to join the Shri Ram Centre For Performing Arts in Delhi which paved the way for the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. There, he was the batchmate of industry stalwarts like Rajkummar Rao, Vijay Varma, Jaideep Ahlawat and Sunny Hinduja. “To survive in Mumbai, initially I took up producing and directing ad films. Acting, though, was always my calling. I got inspired by the work of Jaideep and Rajkummar and went back to acting.”

When it comes to upcoming projects, Jaswant will be next seen in Raj and DK’s series Farzi. He will be sharing screen space with Shahid Kapoor and Vijay Sethupathi. “I am a big Vijay Sethupathi fan. I was looking at his Instagram photos one day and the next day I got a call offering me the role. It was surreal.”

Jaswant has done thrillers and comedy. We ask him if there is any other genre he wishes to explore. “I want to do everything except one thing, adult comedies.”