We saw Vihaan Samat play a rich, spoilt south Delhi guy in the frothy Call Me Bae. Soon, we’ll see him shift gears with Vikramaditya Motwane’s cyber thriller CTRL. The tone, settings and genres of the two projects might be starkly different, but one thing remains the same—his co-star Ananya Panday. “I had shot CTRL with Ananya, and then we came to Call Me Bae. But Call Me Bae was a different ball game altogether. So, we had to do a reset. Ananya is professional and easy to work with. She came fully prepared,” he says.
Bagging a Motwane film is an aspiration of many actors. Working with the acclaimed filmmaker within four years of debuting in Bollywood is then a dream come true for Samat, who first caught the audience’s attention with his role in Mismatched. “I saw Udaan [2010] when I was in school. I saw Trapped [2016] on my flight to college, and then Sacred Games when I was studying in the US. In 2021, I had said in an interview that Vikram was among the five people I wanted to work with. When I heard he was having an audition, I immediately jumped into it. I made sure I gave the film my all because this was the chance of a lifetime.”
For Samat, working with Motwane was a blend of both —understanding the director’s vision and discovering himself as an actor. “Once he chooses you, he places his trust in you. He gives you notes, but he also lets you be. He doesn’t bog you down with too many technical notes. He is also a man of few words. So, initially my ears were perked up to listen to him, but he puts you at ease.”
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