Shreyas Talpade: Playing a villain is challenging for someone who has majorly played positive roles and has been considered a good boy – Exclusive – Times of India

After winning hearts with his grey shade character in ‘Setters’, Shreyas Talpade is all set to entertain his audience with yet another negative role in upcoming film ‘Game of Girgit’. The actor spoke to ETimes about the major difference between both characters, changing characteristics of villains in films, and more. Excerpts…
Tell us something about your negative role in Game of Girgit
Game of Girgit is a very interesting story. It is loosely based on the blue whale game that had gone viral a few years ago and how it was affecting the youngsters and the kids especially. It’s a fantastic thriller directed by Vishal Pandya, and I am looking forward to it. I play a negative character in that. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to reveal much about the film or the character, but yes, I am very excited about it, and I really want people to see the film as soon as possible so that whatever we have tried to do comes forth. Adah Sharma is there with me in the film, and she has done a brilliant job, as has Himanshu Malhotra. I hope the film releases soon.

You have played a negative role before in ‘Setters’. What, according to you, are the challenges of playing a villain?
The character that I have portrayed in ‘Setters’ is completely different from the one I have played in ‘Game of Girgit’. My character in ‘Game of Girgit’ is a more, you know, psychotic kind of fellow. The one in ‘Setters’ was someone who was true to what he was doing, and he feels that he’s been cheated. So it is all about how he turns around and cheats them back. Of course, in ‘Setters’ also, what he’s doing is not the right thing, but in the given scheme of things, he feels he’s the right one. So they are different characters, different challenges, but that’s what really makes our job a lot more interesting, and that’s the reason we are here. So I think this is what keeps the profession exciting for us. Someday you are Laxman from ‘Golmaal’ and someday you are in the ‘Game of Girgit’.

I think it is challenging for someone who has mostly played positive roles or comedy parts and someone who has been considered a good boy. For him, playing a negative character is especially challenging because, villain is someone who’s a bad guy and does bad things. So, of course, you need to put in a little more conviction in that particular part. But there is always your team and your directors who support you. You just have to believe in that particular character and portrait. And that’s what an actor does. And that’s what challenges and actors do. So, yes, it was challenging, but when you do it with conviction, people accept it.

Do you think the characteristics of a villain have changed in Bollywood over the years?
Yes, absolutely! The villains that we have grown up watching on screen, like Amrish Puri, Gulshan Grover, Paresh Rawal, Amjad Khan and many others, were very different from the ones now. So yes, of course, the whole concept of villains has changed now. There are still villains like John Abraham in films like ‘Pathaan’ who is your typical bad guy who wants to destroy the entire world.

But otherwise, in other films, we can see the concept of villains is completely changing. For example, in a film like ‘Drishyam’, there are multiple villains, technically, because all those guys who are against the hero become the villains, and you want the hero to succeed. Similarly, in ‘Pushpa’, there was a different villain. In a film like ‘Kon Pravin Tambe?’, there was a different villain, where the reporter was technically the villain, the bad guy who is against our hero. So yes, the concept of a villain has pretty much changed over the years because the entire dynamics of the industry, the dynamics of storytelling has also changed over the years. And that’s the best part about our work.