From working at a pani puri stall in New Delhi, earning Rs 100 a day to prepare for Balram's role in The White Tiger, to taking the metro dressed as his character, Gourav believes in diving deep into his roles
Adarsh Gourav likes meeting new people and experiencing life. That helps him as an actor
Image: Aditya Desai
Stylist: Dolla Baruah; Stylist Asst: Disha Panchal And Dhriti Udeshi; Hair Stylist: Aamir Shaikh; On Adarsh: Jacket: Bobo Calcutta Sneakers: Free Society
Adarsh Gourav, 27
Actor
After he had cleared three rounds of auditions with casting director Tess Joseph for The White Tiger, Adarsh Gourav bought a T-shirt and a pair of trousers for ₹100 from the street market near Andheri station, Mumbai. He wore those when he went for director Ramin Bahrani’s audition and squatted on the spot as soon as he opened the door.
“I knew that is what he was looking for. I knew it would look authentic to the director and myself eventually,” says Adarsh, who bagged the role of Balram, a tea seller-turned-chauffeur, in the screen adaptation of Aravind Adiga’s book. To further get into the skin of the character of an ambitious man who does menial jobs, he worked at a puri stall in New Delhi for two weeks, cleaning utensils and earning ₹100 a day. “I still have the money I earned on the first two days in my wallet,” says Adarsh. “I would even get on the Metro in Balram’s clothes. I had called for them two weeks in advance.”
(This story appears in the 25 February, 2022 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)