HT NxT: Jaideep Ahlawat says ‘before Paatal Lok, nobody used to wait for my projects, now they do’

Actor Jaideep Ahlawat burst onto the scene with a lead role in Amazon’s Paatal Lok; he is the definition of a 15-year overnight success. But the actor hasn’t really signed a bunch of roles in the immediate aftermath of Paatal Lok’s success.

In an appearance on Hindustan Times NxT, a digital conclave for next-gen leaders and newsmakers, he spoke about choosing his future projects carefully, and why he isn’t signing everything that comes his way after his newfound status as a bankable face.

He said in Hindi, “Paatal Lok released when we were under lockdown, and we haven’t really had too many options since then to start shooting for a new show or a film. I think we resumed shooting in December last year, and then went into another lockdown in March. We’ve only just started working again. Definitely, when you deliver something that good, people’s expectations of you increase. Your expectations from yourself increase. It’s not about being choosy, it’s about being responsible in the subjects that I take up.”

He continued, “Now I have the option to decide what’s the best story that you can do justice to, or you can experiment with. But I’m not choosy, we just haven’t had the chance to shoot anything. Everybody has been home. We’ve only had four months in which shoots have taken place, and a lot of what was offered to me in that time was not something that I liked. That used to be the case before, as well. But I’m more conscious of the decisions I am making now. I’m more responsible now. Until now, nobody used to wait for my next projects, but now they will wait to see if Paatal Lok was a fluke.”

Jaideep said that there is no way one can predict how a certain project will turn out, and provided the example of Paatal Lok, which he said they knew was good, but had no idea would become the ‘talk of the town’. 

Also read: Jaideep Ahlawat: Someone told me they have watched Pataal Lok for the 12th time

Jaideep got his break in Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur. After Paatal Lok, he has had a handful of releases such as Khaali Peeli, Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar, and Shashank Khaitan’s segment in the Netflix anthology Ajeeb Daastaans.