Siddharth Bodke, who plays the pivotal role of David in the Ajay Devgn and Tabu starrer 'Drishyam 2', has been getting a lot of positive feedback. But, David wasn't the role he got selected for, initially.
It was on the film's director Abhishek Pathak's insistence that he auditioned for David's role and as destiny would have it, he performed brilliantly in the audition and bagged the role.
Elaborating on the same, he told IANS: "I got a call from Vicky Sidana's casting agency and auditioned for another role in the film. I even got selected for that. Later Abhishek Pathak, the director, asked me to audition for David's character and that's how I got the role. I must say I loved playing it as it was challenging."
The actor, who is currently seen in the popular TV show, 'Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Mein', further shared how he prepared for his character in the movie.
Shedding light on his part in the film, he said: "It's a Goan Catholic character. I spoke to some local people in Goa to understand their dialect. Later, I asked the director to change the voice of the character a bit, so I put a bit of a husky voice to it. This was required since my character was a drug dealer previously. I have also tried to find some nuances of David. When I met the director for the first time he told me to put on some weight so I gained around 4-5 kg for the role and my thick beard supported my look."
The film starts with Siddharth and his role is critical in the climax.
About how the director briefed him, he said: "Abhishek had narrated everything to me before the shoot and we had met in his office before going to Goa. He explained the whole graph and when we were on set we first used to discuss the graph to maintain the mood and the intensity."
Adding more to the conversation, he spoke about bringing out the emotions through the eyes which was quite important for his character.
"When you have dialogues, it becomes a little easier for an actor to express the character but here dialogues were less and most of the part was about him observing things. I was focused on it. When I had some doubts, I used to ask the director whether they could be seen in the eyes or not."
Further heaping praise on his director, he mentioned: "Abhishek was very supportive and even if I wanted to do one more take then he allowed me to do it because it was a bit challenging to express from the eyes in a subtle manner. I am happy that my part came out to be nice and has been liked by people."
Siddharth also shared his equation with Ajay Devgn on and off the set. He told IANS: "It was amazing to work with him. They are stars for a reason and why are they stars, and you will come to know when you work with them. The way he carries his professionalism on sets is very commendable. Whenever he came on set, almost everything was okay in one take. Working for so many years in front of the camera, he has that ease and calmness in his work."
For Siddharth, it was a learning curve. "I was constantly observing him, we didn't have many scenes together but for those 2-3 scenes that we did, I observed everything about him and tried to learn. Off camera, I talked to him and he is very down-to-earth and a very sweet guy. Once the entire cast and crew had a party with him and we enjoyed it a lot. He is very collaborative and used to crack jokes as well."
On the kind of response 'Drishyam 2' received from the audience, he said: "I feel very happy and fortunate that my first Bollywood film is a hit at the box office. There are houseful shows and it's a big thing for the film industry. I feel very happy to be a part of this hit movie and I hope it becomes a super hit."
