Amol Parashar speaks with a composed nonchalance, except when he gets talking about DJ Chitvan. The character from TVF’s 2016 series Tripling was the breakout role for Parashar. A scene from the show, where he fiddles with a turntable and gives a “performance” in a family gathering (The song was titled “Mada Faka”), went viral on social media. The character also earned him some earnest fans. “This guy met me on the street one day and asked me to say it once,” remembers Parashar. “He won’t let go of my hand. I finally caved in and said the dialogue: ‘Baba, you are beautiful’.”
Parashar started his career with a minor role in Ranbir Kapoor’s cult comedy-drama Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year (2009). Since then, he has played a sensitive delivery boy who romances Konkona Sensharma’s character in Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitaare (2020), a doctor who finds himself stuck in a rural medical care centre in Gram Chikitsalay (2025) and the freedom fighter Bhagat Singh in Shoojit Sircar’s Sardar Udham (2021). He is coming up with The Bureaucrat, an Amazon MX player series about a conman who fakes being an IAS officer. In a telephonic conversation, Parashar discusses the series, why he thinks he isn’t approached with ‘bad guy’ roles, why he can’t yet demand a film like Kabir Singh (2019), and more.
Tell me about The Bureaucrat. Although no teaser or trailer is out yet, the synopsis seems interesting—“After several failed attempts to crack the UPSC, a young IAS aspirant turns into a conman posing as a bureaucrat.” It’s like an anti-12th Fail…
(Laughs) It is. The protagonist, however, doesn't start off from an evil place. He begins as a well-meaning person and then eventually transforms. To hide one big lie you have to tell multiple small ones, it is something like that. I got attracted to the character because I guess, I have always been drawn to stories of morally ambiguous people. And in this case, there was a well etched-out arc of how he actually becomes that person.
Do these grey characters often come your way?
They have only started being made recently with the advent of OTT, but yeah, I don't think they reach me because sometimes a lot of first level casting happens with the visual imagination. Physically, I don’t exactly fall in the image of a bad boy. Also, I didn’t just want to play one just for the sake of it. I would prefer to wait for the right project. For example, I did a show called Kull, which came out last year on Hotstar. That was an out and out a***** kind of role.
An actor who looks like a good guy but plays a bad guy gives something new to the audience...
Yes. It's new for both the viewer and the actor. I mean, as long as the actor wants to do it. Some people, however, have this thing that they want to always play good characters on screen.
Things are completely opposite now though, now actors don't want to play good guys...
(laughs) I agree. Now everybody wants to have an edge. But for me, it is not about being good or bad, it's about doing something new.
With these alpha male characters pulling audiences into theatres, do you as an actor also feel a certain pressure to gravitate towards such roles?
Frankly, currently I don’t have the power to design my career. I can only choose from the projects that come my way. If I get two films or series whose schedules are clashing, I can only decide which one to go for. I mean, I can’t actually wake up one day and say I want to do a Kabir Singh, get me the script.
But are you seeking that kind of power?
I am trying to understand it first. How the levers function, how leverage happens, the target audience, how decisions are made when it comes to casting. When I started out, I used to feel dejected if I was not taken for a particular role but now, I understand. In the end, it is a business. I know nobody will make a Rs 50 crore film with me, even I won’t (laughs). It’s all about your market value, the number of people you can pull into theatres. If I say I want to be in Dhurandhar, it doesn’t make any sense. I will be foolish to expect that or feel bad when I don’t get it.