New Delhi, May 22 (PTI): Jay Khanna healed all my “pain” and “struggle”, says Sidhant Gupta, the breakout star of “Jubilee”, recalling his days of trying and not quite making it in the film industry — an arc that somewhat also mirrors the journey of his reel life character.
Having dipped his toe into modelling and television industry before, Jammu-born Gupta, who made his debut with little-known film “Tutiya Dil” back in 2012, said just a few years ago “nothing was going” his way.
“I wasn’t happy. I didn’t want to do television. I wanted to do films and was not getting what I needed. Did cameos in some films that didn’t work and I was in the middle of nowhere. That was the worst phase of my life,” Gupta told PTI in an interview.
“I feel this character sort of healed my struggles, my pain… I could share all of that through Jay Khanna’s journey,” he added.
Director Vikramaditya Motwane’s offer to play Jay Khanna, a refugee-turned-aspiring filmmaker, in “Jubilee”, came as a breath of fresh air, Gupta said. “Jubilee”, a 10-episode series on the early days of Hindi cinema, premiered on Prime Video in April. “I feel it is the most incredibly written character that I have ever read. I was literally in disbelief. I was like how has it come to me because I don’t think anyone can say no to something like this,” he recalled.
Gupta has been praised for his portrayal of Jay Khanna, initially a happy-go-lucky theatre artist who hardens after the Partition but is driven enough to carve a space for himself in the industry.
