Jamtara actor Amit Sial: I want people to notice all my characters 

Amit Sial, after making his series debut as a cricketer in Prime Video’s Inside Edge, seems to have found his pitch on OTT. The actor was recently seen as a scheming politician in Sony Liv’s Maharani and in Netflix’s Jamtara: Sabka Number Ayega. “Both are politicians, yes but vastly different from each other,” he clarifies. “The idea was not to play a politician, but a character who is a politician.”

Even in theatrical releases, Amit seems to gravitate towards intense, grey characters. One of his notable performances was as Pradeep, one of the brothers in the robber family of Kanu Behl’s Titli (2015). He played another intense role as Prabhat, an investigative reporter desperate for a scoop in Dibakar Banerjee’s Love Sex Aur Dhokha. “When one goes through so many life struggles one becomes hardened, intense. I was merely attracting what I had become,” he shares. “More than that, I was never interested in doing anything and everything. I didn’t want to do something superficial, like slapstick comedies. I wanted to do something with depth, so that people would sit up and take notice.”

Monika Panwar, who plays Gudiya in Jamtara, says Amit as a co-actor was seamless. “It’s so easy to work with him because he is a seasoned actor. It’s like a game of ping-pong, you just have to be alert and react accordingly and he will take the scene on his shoulder.”

Amit’s acting journey, however, had its share of turns and bumps. He was doing theatre but left it to tread a different path. “I took the exams for CA foundation twice and failed,” he says. Then he went to Melbourne to pursue a Masters in International Business, where he met actor Randeep Hooda and developed a life-long friendship. “I was doing a job of washing dishes at an Indian restaurant in Melbourne. The restaurant also provided food which I took for my roommates. One day I came home and Randeep was there, he was my roommate’s friend. We instantly hit it off. When I spoke with him, I realized both of us have a similar thought process and our conversations always found a way towards acting.”

After Melbourne, Amit took up a job in Delhi but couldn’t let go of acting. He met a friend back from his theatre days who was developing a play. “I finished work at 6 pm and then immediately went for rehearsals. It was getting hectic and ultimately I quit my job and opened a food takeaway business,” he reminisces. “Randeep called me for an audition to Mumbai but it didn’t work out and I came back to Delhi. But I realized that I couldn’t do anything else except acting. Finally, in 2004, I moved to Mumbai for good.”

Since he has been playing politicos lately, we asked Amit jokingly if he is manifesting a party ticket. “Never say no to something good coming your way,” he replies, laughing. It stands true for his acting career as well.