Life has changed dramatically for Adarsh Gourav since his breakout performance in The White Tiger (2021). He has seen it all in the past 13 months — international acclaim, noteworthy projects, and a BAFTA nomination. Now, his gripping act has won him a nomination in the Best Actor (Male): Film category at the mid-day and Radio City Hitlist OTT Awards. As we revisit the film, Gourav describes his character Balram — who, on seeing society’s apathy towards the poor, uses devious means to realise his ambitions — as a survivor.

He begins, “Balram’s greed comes out when he realises that life is beyond his control. Everyone around is unforgiving and selfish; they cause him to become what he does. You can’t endorse what he does to get away. I don’t judge him, because do we really judge ourselves? We don’t.”

The actor reveals he never revisited Ramin Bahrani’s directorial venture after its release. “I don’t like watching my movies. I watched it a few times to know what went right and what went wrong. But beyond that, it feels narcissistic. I can’t look beyond a few scenes which I didn’t nail,” he says, citing the example of a sequence that was edited out.

“In the scene, Ashok [Rajkummar Rao] sleeps with a sex worker after Pinky [Priyanka Chopra] leaves him. On realising that Ashok has done this, Balram feels he can do it too. He meets a girl, has a chat and sleeps with her. I was terrible at it.”

Gourav admits that The White Tiger has given him everything he had dreamed of. So, how famous is he now? “Oh, hardly. I get a reality check every now and then,” he laughs. “I was in Rajasthan last year for Valentine’s Day, and we wanted a table. Every place was booked out. Someone suggested we pull strings. So, I made calls to restaurants, and no one there had even watched the film. Eventually, one place knew me. They gave me a table, but that’s because they weren’t sold out.”

Cast your vote for the Hitlist OTT Awards

Adarsh Gourav has been nominated in the Best Actor (Male): Film category for The White Tiger.

The other nominees are:

- Abhishek Bachchan (Bob Biswas)

- Dhanush (Atrangi Re)

- Farhan Akhtar (Toofaan)

- Sidharth Malhotra (Shershaah)

- Vicky Kaushal (Sardar Udham)

Log on to www.radiocity.in/hitlistawards to cast your vote.

You can also vote via SMS. Send HITLIST <space> category name <space> your choice (a/b/c as on the website) to 57575.

Voting lines close on March 18.