Actor Rishabh Sawhney recently returned to the country after his film, Echoes Of Valour, was showcased at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival. This second outing is a stark contrast to his role as the main antagonist in Hrithik Roshan-starrer Fighter (2024).

“After Fighter, I was being typecast and was only offered macho villainous roles which weren’t intriguing enough to pursue,” the 30-year-old tells us, adding, “As much as I love commercial films, I was looking for a festival film to explore this side of storytelling. It wasn’t a difficult transition, but a conscious choice.”

Having worked with filmmaker Sidharth Anand made the shift easier. He shares, “Both directors have very different sensibilities when it comes to filmmaking. But I definitely felt more confident on the sets of the festival film, having already worked on a mega-budget project.”

While some believe that a film or actor doing the rounds at global platforms has automatically made it big, Rishabh begs to differ. “I don’t think that I have arrived yet. But my experience working on the film was very emotional and I am glad it received a great response,” he signs off.

They say never meet your heroes. But Rishabh Sawhney, who plays the antagonist in Fighter, would argue against it after working alongside his childhood hero Hrithik Roshan. “When he made his acting debut with Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai [2000], it was the first time I saw a Hindi cinema actor having a model physique. I was a 120-kilo kid at the time. That inspired me,” recalls Sawhney.

When he met Roshan on the set of director Siddharth Anand’s aerial action thriller, he was understandably starstruck. “My acting coach had told me this would happen, but I needed to focus on my character.”

In the Roshan, Deepika Padukone and Anil Kapoor-starrer that is centred on the journey of a few Indian Air Force pilots, Sawhney’s character is shown as the mastermind behind the 2019 Pulwama attack. For him, the face-off sequences were the toughest.

“My biggest concern was that I didn’t want to hurt Hrithik while performing action. I was being slightly hesitant, but he told me, ‘You make sure that the punch looks authentic and I will make sure it doesn’t land on my face.’”

The actor is not in a hurry to sign his next. He says, “I worked hard over the last two years, and now I should enjoy this success. It’s new for me and I want to savour every bit of it.”