Sidhant Gupta on impact of Freedom At Midnight and Black Warrant: People are not seeing me just as a pretty face anymore

As Sidhant Gupta turns a year older today, he admits that the day is a bit more special for him as it comes at the heels of two back-to-back successes —Freedom At Midnight and Black Warrant. “I do miss my friends and family as they're all in Jammu. I wish I was there, or they were here, but I'm working so that makes it special,” the actor says.

As he turns 36, Sidhant Gupta mentions that it has been the first time in his career that he has had two projects released in such quick succession. But he is overwhelmed with the love that has come his way and agrees that it has changed the perception of him that people had. “People are seeing me in a different light, which is what I really wanted out of the choices that I made. In hindsight when I think about it, I was actually carving and building up my roots as an actor. People are not just seeing me as a pretty face anymore. They are able to look beyond it. I feel capable as an artiste and that's a great encouragement,” he says.

However, the actor admits that he isn’t used to being this frequently in the limelight. “I usually like to do one thing at a time, but I took a leap of faith with the roles of Jawaharlal Nehru and Charles Sobhraj. I remember my part as Charles was just getting over and two days later, Freedom At Midnight was starting. It felt like a risk when I was taking it, but in my case, the risk paid off. Now, I'm okay to explore depending on the opportunities,” he says.

Explaining his thought process behind choosing less work, Sidhant shares, “I feel that if I am interested in my project, than the other people will be interested in me. I just don't want to live a cliche life, especially when I have chosen this line of work. All these choices I have made, while they show risk, they just evoked my interest to a point where I couldn't resist it. I just try to take up interesting and not the cliche things.”

Recently, his breakthrough web series Jubilee completed two years. While there was buzz that a second season might be made of the show, no development has happened on it since. However, Sidhant wants the story to move forward: “I truly believe that it's one of the most beautiful series ever made in this country. As an industry, we're still figuring out the series space and everyone is finding their own space in entertainment. But with Jubilee, it is so special and beautiful that I think something like that must carry forward, it must go on.”

But having made a mark on the OTT space, does he intend to return to the big screen to create a similar space for himself? “100%. If I look at films and genres across the globe, I want to do something like La La Land here. But the writing has to find you. I keep reading scripts, but it has to shake-up something inside of me, otherwise it’s better to stay where I am right now,” responds the actor whose last big screen outing was the 2022 release Operation Romeo.