Tag: Adarsh Gourav

  • Everyman actor: ‘The White Tiger’ fame Adarsh Gourav

    Express News Service

    If slow and steady had a face, it would be Adarsh Gourav’s. The actor, who shot to fame in 2021 with The White Tiger, now has a slew of projects this year. There’s Kho Gaye Hum Kahan with Ananya Panday and Siddhant Chaturvedi, there’s Raj & DK’s Guns and Gulaabs, and his crowning glory—the recently released science-fiction series on climate change, Extrapolations, which also stars Hollywood stalwarts such as Meryl Streep, Edward Norton and Kit Harington among others.

    It is Gourav’s unassuming presence in the industry until a few years ago that makes his rise almost meteoric. His most popular role until The White Tiger was playing an engineering student in Hotel Daze, a comedy series on Amazon Prime, although he had appeared in evidently missable roles in My Name is Khan (as young Shah Rukh Khan), Sridev’s Mom (as one of the antagonists) and Anurag Kashyap’s short film, Clean Shaven, among a few others.   

    “I owe everything to The White Tiger. It gave me new opportunities and access to writers, directors and producers,” says Gourav, who bagged a BAFTA nomination for his portrayal of a chauffeur, who is a victim of class discrimination. The film also starred Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Rajkummar Rao.

    In Extrapolations, Gourav plays a truck driver in rural India who, in the face of the worsening climate crisis, takes to smuggling seeds across the subcontinent to make money. He stars in the fifth episode of the series helmed by American filmmaker Scott Z Burns, best known for Contagion. The episode is directed by Richie Mehta of Delhi Crime fame. “It was a challenging role, especially from the preparation point of view. 

    I like to understand the character’s personal politics, relationship dynamics and world view. In this series, now that the world is going to end, my character’s only motivation is money, and when he finds out there are £10,000 involved in the smuggling business, he takes it up,” the actor says.

    For Mumbai-based Gourav though, simply following the script is not enough. He is a method actor, and feels the need to identify with his character emotionally. “I went to Nagpur and met farmers and some of the widows. 

    I learnt to drive a truck. Some days, I would just sit next to a truck driver, while he drove around for several hours, and just ask him questions––what does he do when he is away from his family? What does he eat? How does he unwind?” Gourav says, adding, “The entire reason for me to act and be a storyteller is because I am interested in people. When you get the opportunity to be someone else, you embrace all of their conflicts and victories.”

    Besides being based on a topical subject, Extrapolations also has a diverse cast, including actors with Asian, South American and African heritages such as Eiza González, Daveed Diggs, Forest Whitaker and Gemma Chan.

    Does that mean Gourav has more characters written for Asians coming his way? “Stereotypes are getting broken. It is, however, not just about colour-blind casting. What is also important is for diverse writers to be included in such setups,” he says, adding, “When there are more writers from the subcontinent in the West, they will be more responsible for accurate representations, or imagining us playing characters belonging to different professions. The West is slowly realising that India is the next big market and this will only get better for technicians, writers, directors and actors. It is a great time to be around,” he says.

    “I owe everything to The White Tiger. It gave me new opportunities and access to writers, directors and producers.” 

    If slow and steady had a face, it would be Adarsh Gourav’s. The actor, who shot to fame in 2021 with The White Tiger, now has a slew of projects this year. There’s Kho Gaye Hum Kahan with Ananya Panday and Siddhant Chaturvedi, there’s Raj & DK’s Guns and Gulaabs, and his crowning glory—the recently released science-fiction series on climate change, Extrapolations, which also stars Hollywood stalwarts such as Meryl Streep, Edward Norton and Kit Harington among others.

    It is Gourav’s unassuming presence in the industry until a few years ago that makes his rise almost meteoric. His most popular role until The White Tiger was playing an engineering student in Hotel Daze, a comedy series on Amazon Prime, although he had appeared in evidently missable roles in My Name is Khan (as young Shah Rukh Khan), Sridev’s Mom (as one of the antagonists) and Anurag Kashyap’s short film, Clean Shaven, among a few others.   

    “I owe everything to The White Tiger. It gave me new opportunities and access to writers, directors and producers,” says Gourav, who bagged a BAFTA nomination for his portrayal of a chauffeur, who is a victim of class discrimination. The film also starred Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Rajkummar Rao.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    In Extrapolations, Gourav plays a truck driver in rural India who, in the face of the worsening climate crisis, takes to smuggling seeds across the subcontinent to make money. He stars in the fifth episode of the series helmed by American filmmaker Scott Z Burns, best known for Contagion. The episode is directed by Richie Mehta of Delhi Crime fame. “It was a challenging role, especially from the preparation point of view. 

    I like to understand the character’s personal politics, relationship dynamics and world view. In this series, now that the world is going to end, my character’s only motivation is money, and when he finds out there are £10,000 involved in the smuggling business, he takes it up,” the actor says.

    For Mumbai-based Gourav though, simply following the script is not enough. He is a method actor, and feels the need to identify with his character emotionally. “I went to Nagpur and met farmers and some of the widows. 

    I learnt to drive a truck. Some days, I would just sit next to a truck driver, while he drove around for several hours, and just ask him questions––what does he do when he is away from his family? What does he eat? How does he unwind?” Gourav says, adding, “The entire reason for me to act and be a storyteller is because I am interested in people. When you get the opportunity to be someone else, you embrace all 
    of their conflicts and victories.”

    Besides being based on a topical subject, Extrapolations also has a diverse cast, including actors with Asian, South American and African heritages such as Eiza González, Daveed Diggs, Forest Whitaker and Gemma Chan.

    Does that mean Gourav has more characters written for Asians coming his way? “Stereotypes are getting broken. It is, however, not just about colour-blind casting. What is also important is for diverse writers to be included in such setups,” he says, adding, “When there are more writers from the subcontinent in the West, they will be more responsible for accurate representations, or imagining us playing characters belonging to different professions. The West is slowly realising that India is the next big market and this will only get better for technicians, writers, directors and actors. It is a great time to be around,” he says.

    “I owe everything to The White Tiger. It gave me new opportunities and access to writers, directors and producers.” 

  • Adarsh Gourav to star alongside Meryl Streep, David Schwimmer in Apple’s ‘Extrapolations’

    By PTI

    LOS ANGELES: Adarsh Gourav, the breakout star of “The White Tiger”, is set to share screen space with the likes of Meryl Streep, Gemma Chan, Kit Harington, and David Schwimmer in Scott Z Burns’ climate change anthology drama series “Extrapolations”.

    The Apple TV Plus show’s star-studded cast also includes Sienna Miller, Tahar Rahim, Matthew Rhys, and Daveed Diggs, reported Deadline. The series tells stories of how the upcoming changes to the planet will affect love, faith, work and family on a personal and human scale.

    Told over a season of eight interconnected episodes, each story in the scripted series will track the worldwide battle for our mutual survival spanning the 21st century. Burns serves as writer, director and executive producer on “Extrapolations”, which comes from Michael Ellenberg’s Media Res.

    Gourav, who was nominated for the leading actor BAFTA for the Netflix film “The White Tiger”, will play Gaurav, a driver for hire on the show. Streep’s role has not been disclosed, but Miller will play marine biologist Rebecca Shearer.

    “Eternals” co-stars Harington and Chan will play Nicholas Bilton, the CEO of an industrial giant, and Natasha Alper, a single mother and micro-finance banker, respectively.

    “Friends” alum Schwimmer will play the role of Harris Goldblatt, a father to a teenage daughter and another best actor BAFTA nominee Rahim (“The Mauritanian”) stars as Ezra Haddad, a man struggling with memory loss.

    “Perry Mason” star Rhys essays the role of Junior, a real estate developer, with Diggs of “Hamilton” fame starring as Marshall Zucker, a rabbi in South Florida.

    Talking about “Extrapolation”, Burns said, “The only thing we know for sure about the future is that we are all going there together — and we’re taking with us our hopes, our fears, our appetites, our creativity, our capacity for love and our predilection to cause pain. These are the same tools that storytellers have been using since the beginning of time. Our show is just using them to keep time from running out.”

    Ellenberg, Greg Jacobs, Dorothy Fortenberry and Lindsey Springer are also attached to exec produce the series. The series is now under production.

  • Want to become a better version of myself: Adarsh Gourav

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Critical success of Ramin Bahrani’s “The White Tiger” as well as a BAFTA nomination for his performance in the film has given Adarsh Gourav access to opportunities and the actor says he wants the make most of it by choosing unique characters.

    The Jamshedpur-born actor was nominated for the leading actor BAFTA for his role of Balram, the quintessential underdog, from a poor low-caste family.

    Based on Aravind Adiga’s Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name, “The White Tiger” follows Balram’s (Gourav) rise from a poor villager to a successful entrepreneur in India, showcasing how hunger and lack of opportunity can build and drive a human being’s animal instinct of survival.

    It also featured Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Rajkummar Rao.

    Gourav said going ahead he wants to keep evolving as an individual and an artiste.

    ““I do not feel a sense of pressure in terms of what I will do next. All I know is, I want to do films that engage me and the audience. I want to keep changing and evolving as an individual. I want to become a better version of myself,”” the actor told PTI in a Zoom interview.

    He added that he would not like to restrict himself and keep learning and exploring newer things in life.

    ““I want to work globally. Work in all languages, learn new languages. I hope, I have the time to do that. My driving force in life is to pick up new things and chase them completely and try to master them in some way. I want to be part of unique stories, play different characters with ease and that will come with age and experience.”

    The international acclaim combined with award nominations at Independent Spirit award and AACTA award led to increased media attention and better offers for the 27-year-old actor, who has previously appeared in movies “My Name is Khan”, “Mom” and Netflix series “Leila”.

    The actor said he has read a lot of scripts in the past few months and there are some interesting offers, but he is not in a position to divulge any details until the official announcement.

    ““There are a lot more auditions happening and access to opportunities than before. I have read a lot of scripts; spoken to filmmakers I have aspired to work with. “Things are looking good. But there is only so much I can talk about because there is no official announcement on my future projects. But there are a bunch of interesting things happening next year.”

    Gourav said as a child he never intended to be an actor, but now he does aim to excel in the craft.

    He has also made a wishlist of directors he would like to work with and that includes Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, Zoya Akhtar, Farhan Akhtar, Devashish Makhija among others.

    “”It (acting) happened accidentally. I was singing at a place and someone asked me if I want to try out acting and I said, why not. I was just an enthusiastic kid. I gave it a shot and it worked then. It was purely an accident, I never intended to be an actor,”” he said.

    The actor will now be seen reprising his role of Ankit Pandey in the second season of “Hostel Daze”, directed by Amir Musanna and Sangram Naiksatam.

    The Amazon Prime Video show, which will be out on July 23, captures the hostel culture of an engineering college.

    The actor said in the sophomore season newer arcs are being explored in terms of relationship dynamics and the individual journey of every character.

    “”This is the only show that I am part of that has had a sequel. For the second season, I did watch the first part and sort of revise, jog my memory through my character arc and all of that. Having said that, the character has been established (in season two), you understand his sense of morality, ethics, thought process better,”” he said.

    Besides Gourav, the comedy-drama series also stars Luv Vispute, Shubham Gaur, Nikhil Vijay, Ahsaas Channa and Ayushi Gupta.

  • Awe-inspiring to see ‘The White Tiger’ being embraced by people worldwide: Priyanka Chopra Jonas

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Priyanka Chopra Jonas on Saturday penned an emotional note for the love and acceptance her Netflix film “The White Tiger” has received.

    Based on author Aravind Adiga’s 2008 novel of the same name, the movie started streaming on Netflix from January 22.

    Taking to Instagram, the actor shared the film’s poster and revealed that the Ramin Bahrani-directed movie has been on the Top 10 film list in 64 countries.

    The film, which also features Adarsh Gourav and Rajkummar Rao, has been watched in 27 million households in its first four weeks of release.The White Tiger

    ALSO READ | BAFTA 2021: Priyanka Chopra, Adarsh Gourav feature on longlists for ‘The White Tiger’

    “It’s so emotional for me to see the discovery and acceptance of this brilliant incredible story. ‘The White Tiger’ being embraced by audiences all over the world is awe inspiring,” Chopra Jonas wrote.

    The 38-year-old actor-producer thanked Bahrani, Adiga and the cast and crew of “The White Tiger” for their hard work and making the film a success.

    “Congrats and thank you to Aravind, Ramin, Adarsh, Raj, Mukul, Ava and everyone involved. Thank you Netflix for giving our little movie wings. #grateful,” she added.

    “The White Tiger” chronicled the extraordinary journey of a driver named, Balram (Gourav).

    It follows Balram’s rise from a poor villager to a successful entrepreneur in India, showcasing how hunger and lack of opportunity can build and drive a human being’s animal instinct of survival.

    Chopra Jonas stars as Pinky Madam, a first-generation immigrant in the US, who is married to Rao’s character Ashok.

    She also served as an executive producer on the film along with Emmy award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay.

    Netflix has produced the movie in association with Mukul Deora.

  • BAFTA 2021: Priyanka Chopra, Adarsh Gourav feature on longlists for ‘The White Tiger’

    By ANI
    WASHINGTON: The longlists for BAFTA 2021 were recently unveiled and Ramin Bahrani’s directorial ‘The White Tiger’ earned a spot in several categories. Actors Priyanka Chopra and Adarsh Gourav also made it to the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ longlists for their powerful performances in ‘The White Tiger’.

    ‘The White Tiger’, which also stars actor Rajkummar Rao, made it to seven categories, including the Best Film, Best Actor, and Best Director. Priyanka is on the Best Supporting Actress longlist for her role in the film while Adarsh made it to the longlist for the Best Actor category.

    As per Deadline, the film also got selected for the Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing.

    ‘The White Tiger’, directed by Ramin, explores India’s class struggle and is told from the perspective of Balram (Adarsh), a lower-class citizen who becomes a chauffeur for a rich landlord named Ashok and his wife named Pinky played by Rajkummar and Priyanka respectively. Priyanka is also the executive producer of the film.

    The film is adapted from Aravind Adiga’s Man Booker Prize-winning debut novel of the same name.

    After a few rounds of voting, the final list of nominations for the BAFTA Awards will be announced on March 9. The award ceremony will take place on April 11. The event usually takes place before April but was postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

  • Delhi HC refuses to stay release of film ‘The White Tiger’ on Netflix tonight

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Thursday refused to stay release of film ‘The White Tiger’ tonight on OTT platform Netflix on a plea by Hollywood producer John Hart Jr alleging copyright violation.

    In an urgent hearing conducted late evening, Justice C Hari Shankar dismissed the stay application by the producer saying not a single reason was shown to approach the court less than 24 hours before release of the film.

    The court, which heard the matter for over two hours, issued summons to the producer of the film Mukul Deora and Netflix where it will be released tonight.

    it listed the matter for completion of pleadings before the joint registrar on March 22.

    The film ‘The White Tiger’ is based on the book ‘The White Tiger’ which was released in March 2008.

    The film features Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Rajkummar Rao and Adarsh Gourav in the lead role.

    The court said, “It is not possible for this court to come to the finding, based on the material on record, that by making and releasing the film, the defendants have indulged in copyright infringement.”

    The court said Deora and Netflix are allowed to release the film and are directed to keep detailed accounts of the film so that if at a later stage, Hart Jr succeeds, the court can determine the monetary compensation.

    It also said that on a holistic consideration of facts, especially as the plaintiffs have chosen to approach the court less than 24 hours before the release of the film, they have not been able to make out a case for an ad-interim injunction on release of the movie.

    Advocate Kapil Sankhla, representing Hart Jr, said that a literary auction agreement was executed between him and author of the book Aravinda Adiga in March 2009 and he had to make it an Oscar worthy film to be released in Hollywood.

    He said it was only in October 2019, that he came to know that Netflix was in the process of making and releasing the film on Over The Top (OTT) platform and this resulted in sending a legal notice to Deora and Netflix to seize and desist from any such act.

    Sankhla, also representing Sonia Mudbhatkal who runs a US Production Company, said his clients were never given an impression that shooting of a film was going on in 2020 as all such works were put on hold abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic and this resulted in copyright infringement.

    He sought to stay the release of the film saying it will not cause any serious financial ramifications to the defendants as the movie is to be released on OTT and not on theatres.

    Senior advocate Sandeep Sethi, representing Deora, opposed the suit saying the cause of action arose in October 2019 itself and the plaintiffs have approached the court at the 11th hour which is not permissible.

    He added that Hart Jr has concealed various relevant documents from the court and placed a one sided story and that no cause of granting ad-interim injunction was made out.

    Advocate Saikrishna Rajagopal, representing Netflix, adopted the arguments advanced by Sethi and added that the OTT film release involves huge finances and goodwill and no stay should be granted.

    After hearing all the parties, the court said it cannot arrive at a view that the defendants have prima facie infringed the copyrights of plaintiffs by making and releasing the film.

    “I am prima facie inclined to agree with Mr. Sethi that if release of the movie is stalled at this stage, it will cause serious and irreparable consequences to the defendants,” the judge said.