Soon after he won Bigg Boss 8, Gautam Gulati was offered the role of a cricket er-turned-commentator, Ravish, in Tony D'Souza's Emraan Hashmi-starrer Azhar. Ravish is reportedly inspired by former Indian cricketer Ravi Shastri.

“I met Tony sir for a look test after coming out of the Bigg Boss house. When I read the script I instantly fell in love with the character. He's a flamboyant, sophisticated cricketer who'd played an important role in Mohammed Azharuddin's life when he was just starting out,“ says the 28-year-old actor, who did a two-month long workshop with the Azhar director before shooting commenced. “You'll see me doing a lot of commentary, so besides the reading sessions I watched a lot of commentating videos as part of the prep. Cricket commentary is not an easy job, it requires presence of mind and impromptu lines. It was great fun.“

Quiz him on what it was like sharing screen space with the reel Azhar and he recalls how, when they were shooting a pool scene in London, Emraan Hashmi casually mentioned that he had liked a trailer of his show, MTV Big F, which had him kissing a girl. “Both of us burst out laughing and I told him, 'Sir aap hi se seekha hai',“ chuckles Gautam adding that his 37-year-old co-star has a great sense of humour. Gautam, who shot in London for a month followed by a four-day schedule in Hyderabad, even got a chance to play cricket with the real life Azhar. “It was during the early days of the shoot when he was on the sets to train Emraan sir,“ he says.

Gautam hasn't signed any new films. More than the length, the quality of a role and a big banner are important to him. “I don't want to do films that will never release. I am reading scripts and hopefully will sign something soon,“ he says.