After starting the year with the blockbuster Pathaan, actor Manish Wadhwa is basking in the glory of Gadar 2. “I consider myself extremely fortunate that I could be a part of two of the biggest hits of this year. I’m getting so many calls from everywhere,” gushes Wadhwa.

Having played Pakistani army generals in both the films, Wadhwa asserts that it was still quite challenging to portray similar characters differently. “The era was different,” he says, adding, “General Hamid Iqbal in Gadar 2 is very desi, with a different thinking, whereas General Qadir in Pathaan is very polished and belongs to the modern era. So, while Manish Wadhwa is the same, I had to think about how these two characters would think and behave differently.”

The 51-year-old agrees that it’s “natural for audiences and filmmakers to judge that I was stereotyped”, but he thinks otherwise. Has he received offers to play the antagonist in his future projects, too? “I’ve received some scripts, but I haven’t had the time to read them. I am enjoying the success of the film and I don’t want to get distracted,” says Wadhwa.

What really helped his characters leave a mark is that he completely surrendered to his directors — Siddharth Anand (Pathaan) and Anil Sharma (Gadar 2). “I believe if you go on set with a blank slate as an artiste, you can write anything on that slate. Agar main pehle se soch ke jaunga, toh woh sahi nahin hai,” he says.

For Gadar 2, the actor was selected in the first meeting itself. “I had done the Tamil movie Shyam Singha Roy (2021). Its stunt director, Ravi Varma, showed the clips to Anil Sharma ji, who was searching for a villain. He liked it and that’s how I came on board,” he wraps up.