Bollywood's most underrated actor and the toast of the town Jaideep Ahlawat on life after Paatal Lok
Uma Ramasubramanian (MID-DAY; JUne 16, 2020)

In college, he was an Akshay Kumar fan, often deliberately missing a bus only so he could chase it like his screen idol did in a sequence in Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi (1996). He has, for so long, played the part of the avid admirer that Jaideep Ahlawat is surprised to find himself on the other side of the table today. Since Paatal Lok dropped online, there has been a constant celebration, and a deserving one at that, around Ahlawat, who plays inspector Hathiram Choudhary in the Amazon Prime Video offering. "I don't understand the term 'overnight stardom'. I don't know how to react when people acknowledge me as a star," says the actor candidly.

But describing Ahlawat as the product of overnight stardom would be lazy, if not uninformed. The actor, who graduated from the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII) in 2008, has been quietly laying the foundation of a solid career all the while as Bollywood obsessed over its next six-pack-abs hero or rolled out the red carpet for the next star kid. It's not surprising then that his first breakout role was in Anurag Kashyap's Gangs Of Wasseypur (2012), followed by Meghna Gulzar's Raazi (2018).

"Raazi was the turning point in my career. It brought me respect, and that happened only because Meghna believed in me," recalls Ahlawat, who hails from a world far removed from showbiz. "I come from a family of farmers in Kharkara, Haryana. However, when I told my parents I want to be an actor, they supported me."

Life may have witnessed a turnaround post , but going forward, the actor hopes to continue finding compelling stories. "One must continue to look at the world from a lens that gives you a reality check. An actor must not get swayed by the praise. The idea is to tell different stories while exploring them from different angles. But that will be possible for an actor only if he has a variety of offers. So, I hope this translates into more choices."

One would imagine that he is flooded with offers, but he remains tight-lipped. "Nobody knows what the next move is. I am in talks with a few people, let's see how things work out." A second season of Paatal Lok, perhaps. "Anushka [Sharma, producer] had said it is a possibility. They have yet to decide. I hope it happens because I would like to be part of the second season."

The Sudip Sharma-created series won much acclaim for holding a mirror to society and showing how it plays an active role in creating criminals. However, a section of viewers felt that the nine-part offering normalises violence. "There are barely four violent scenes," defends Ahlawat, adding, "Unless you are shown the other side of the coin, you will never be able to figure out the bitter truth. Unless we show Hathoda Tyagi [the character played by Abhishek Banerjee] killing a few people, how can we give him the tag Hathoda? The show was not made to glorify violence."