I've always thought of myself as Irrfan's Eklavya: Jaideep Ahlawat

Acting is about teamwork, and Jaideep Ahlawat strongly believes in that. “As Naseerbhai (Naseeruddin Shah) rightly says, acting is about reacting. It’s teamwork. Selfish hona bohot kharab cheej hoti hai ek actor ke liye. It’s not about overpowering a scene or hogging all the lines for yourself because that shows. The greatest actors are not self-centric. Look at Irrfan sir, he always stayed true to his character.”

Recalling his meeting with Irrfan, he said, “I met Irrfan sir at the FTII briefly. I never got a chance to work with him, nor did he teach us at the institute, but his work taught us everything. He was so connected to his characters that no matter what he did, it always felt isse better koi kar hi nahi sakta. He made every role believable because he loved his craft so much. If you look at any of his films, what stands out is that he never had this thought of overpowering a scene. There was no selfishness, he was just true to his character and the story is what mattered the most to him. Chota muh badi baat, but I felt like I was his Eklavya. He never taught me, but I learned a lot just by watching him. Vijay (Varma) and I would scream his movie dialogues while bathing from across the common bathrooms of our respective dormitory wings that faced each other at the FTII. Hum unke Haasil ke dialogues chhilate thhe.”

Jaideep added, “I remember when I met Irrfan sahab and were going to click a picture, we were told lambey ladke peeche khade ho jao. But I fought to sit close to him in that group photo.”