When bad is beautiful

Akshay Oberoi

All-white or all-black roles are boring. It's that sweet spot in between, the shades of grey in a character that draw most actors. Akshay Oberoi has dived into one such role for his next, Dil Hai Gray. In Susi Ganesan's directorial venture, the actor plays a software engineer who uses technology to create a cat-and-mouse game between Vineet Kumar Singh and his character. "Despite the grey shades, my character embodies elements of heroism and redemption," says Oberoi, pointing out that his role is far from that of a conventional villain.

Actors often borrow inspiration from past portrayals, and Oberoi was no different. He says he turned to Saif Ali Khan's iconic role of Langda Tyagi in Omkara (2006), Nawazuddin Siddiqui's Ramanna in Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016), and Ranveer Singh's Alauddin Khilji in Padmaavat (2018) to pick up elements that made these characters morally deviant yet memorable. "There was an evil tone to Saif's Langda Tyagi, but there was also softness to him. I tried to channel that ease when playing the grey role. Khilji is evil yet almost comical at times because of his eccentric behaviour and expressions. These nuances made it a good reference point."