Aadil Zafar Khan made his acting debut on the big screen with Shikara (2020). However, it is on OTT that he has found footing as an artiste. Aadil’s performance in his latest outing, Khakee: The Bengal Chapter, has earned him rave reviews.

He tells us, “Shikara released in February 2020, and a month later, the entire world went into lockdown. After almost two years of being out of sight and out of mind, (filmmaker) Neeraj Pandey sir gave me Special Ops 1.5: The Himmat Story, and it revived my career.”

Aadil says that he, too, has experienced the problem faced by most young actors today — casting decisions being driven by an artist’s social media following. He shares, “Social media popularity should be the byproduct of your work as an actor and not vice versa. Thankfully, I feel that the practice is slowly declining. We have makers like Neeraj sir, whose only criterion for casting is an actor’s suitability for the part.”

In the same vein, Aadil asserts that he understands the makers’ compulsions: “If you look at it from a business perspective, the reach of an actor does help the project. It becomes a problem only when social media popularity is prioritized over talent. There is a difference between content creators and actors, and that should be kept in mind.”

The actor says that he is grateful for getting a chance to show his versatility. “It’s my mother’s blessings from up there that it is all happening naturally. The hunger for being appreciated and loved by the crowd will never end. Acceptance is your earning as an actor,” he says.