When Sparsh Shrivastava first read the script of Laapataa Ladies, he didn’t see Deepak just as a boy who loses his wife on a train. He saw someone carrying the entire film. “Deepak ka jo character hai, woh shuru mein apni wife ko leke chalta hai, then he loses his wife, and in the entire film, he’s only searching for her. That’s the whole character,” he says, adding, “There was nothing much. Pata nahi kyun, mujhe kabhi laga hi nahi ki yeh keval ladies ki film hai. Mujhe hamesha laga yeh utni hi meri bhi film hai.”

In a recent chat with us, he recalled his Agra and Delhi days and spoke about finding footing in the industry.

Sparsh says the honesty of his character Deepak was in the eyes. “Jitna zyada aap apne character ke saath time bitane lagte ho, woh aapke acting mein aane lagta hai. Meri honesty uss character ko leke, zara sa bhi corrupt nahi hui. Mujhe hamesha laga yeh utni hi meri bhi film hai jitni makers ki.” At a meeting at Aamir Khan’s house after the film finished, he remembers, “Aamir sir ne bola, ‘You’ve brought the character above the paper.’”

Sparsh isn’t naive about the way the industry treats people differently. “People say there’s no balance in the industry and different people get treated differently. But aaj bahut badal gaya hai. Makers are looking for actors, not names. Having worked with directors like Kiran Rao, Soumendra Padhi, and Sonam Nair, I’ve seen them treat the spot boy with as much warmth as someone coming in to shoot for just an hour.”

Sparsh says the joy of working still colours his memories – whether it was 17-hour rehearsals as a child or shuttling between Agra and Delhi for dance classes, and between Agra and Mumbai for work. At 8 or 9, he’d travel to Delhi for classes at Shiamak Davar’s institute. And even now, he finds himself caught between the cities. “Jab main Mumbai mein hota hoon, toh sabse zyada Agra ki language miss karta hoon. Aur jab Agra jata hoon, toh tourist ki feeling ke saath jata hoon,” he laughs.

Sparsh says what matters more than dialogue is silence. He says, “I love playing parts where I don’t have to say much and I could emote through my body, eyes, movements.” “The reason might be simple – ‘I’m a really good dancer,’” he admits, grinning. “To be a good dancer, you have to express a lot.” At 11, he won Chak Dhoom Dhoom, a reality dance show, after hours of daily rehearsals.

In the web show Dupahiya, Sparsh did danced to the Photua song in a ghaghra-choli. “Ganesh Master ji (Ganesh Acharya) choreographed it. Sabko ghaghra-choli pehnake perform karwaya. Earlier we thought the back dancers would be girls, but it was his idea to keep everyone – even the background dancers – as men. It’s really unusual to see a song like that in a web show,” he says.