Television star Nandish Sandhu, who rose to fame with the popular soap opera Uttaran, is now all set to rule the big screen. Alongside Hrithik Roshan’s Anand Kumar, his performance as the protagonist’s brother Pranav Kumar in Super 30 has been much acclaimed. Currently, the actor is humbled to be associated with a star like Roshan and overwhelmed with all the audience affection that the film has received. Excerpts from an interview:

Q) How did you land the role of Anand Kumar’s brother in Super 30?

I got the role through Mukesh Chabra’s casting company. I got a call and they asked me to come down for an audition. I was just told that this audition is for a film. When I got there, I was given the script and asked to enact a scene after which I was told that they would get back to me. Eventually they were very happy with my audition. And I, of course, went forward to take up the role, post which my training session started. And that was when it all properly began for me.

Q) Tell us some interesting things about the character you’ve portrayed.

My character has a lot of layers and is one of the most interesting ones that I have portrayed on screen. My character is Anand ji’s younger brother who is the backbone of Super 30. A silent observer, Pranav Kumar is a man of few words with a heart of gold and good intentions. He is the main force behind Anand Kumar achieving his dreams and they both complete each other in every way. Both the brothers stood with each other in difficult times and have amazing bonding.

Q) How difficult was it to pick up the Bihari accent?

It was quite a challenge because this is the first time I was portraying a character with a Bihari accent. I have never played any character, who is from Bihar. So, initially it was very tough, which made me quite sceptical about whether I would be able to do it or not, but I was reassured when I saw a lot of other people working on it in the film and especially Hrithik Roshan as it was his first time too. I started watching a lot of Bihari videos on YouTube and after that I got connected to Pranav ji as well. We also got on board a dialect trainer, Ganesh Kumar, who really worked hard on me and trained me well. Eventually it became very interesting and I started enjoying the language.

Q) How was the experience of sharing screen space with Hrithik Roshan?

Well, it was brilliant! If there were better words, I would have said those. This experience is going to stay with me forever, especially because it is my very first project in Bollywood. I have always maintained this over the years that I am a great admirer and huge fan of Hrithik sir’s work. Hence, working with him was like a dream coming true for me. He is very humble and a lovely human being, he is such a nice person who makes everyone around him feel comfortable.

Q) What kind of research went into the film? What was your part in it?

It took years of work and not just months or weeks. It is based on a book on Anand Kumar ji. Considering right from how they think, to how their childhood has been, what the family was like et al, every bit has been covered and there was a lot of research that went into all those things. There were brainstorming sessions and then putting everything together as a film. This was a huge task and responsibility because it’s a real life story, based on real life characters. So, yes, a lot of hard work and research went into showcasing what we finally did on screen.

Q) Now that you are into films, will television take a backseat?

Yes, two of my films are releasing back to back out of which one has already released. I also feel very fortunate that both the films are releasing together. About television, I am not too sure at the moment, as I am currently enjoying this space that I am a part of. Though what I am happy about is that there is a lot of good content being made on the web space and I would definitely want to do a good web series someday.

Q) What are your upcoming projects?

I am not allowed to talk about any upcoming project at the moment. Though there definitely is something coming up, which I am going to start very soon!