Neil Nitin Mukesh talks about playing grey roles

Mumbai: Neil Nitin Mukesh said he made a ‘conscious decision’ to take on grey roles right from his 2007 debut with Sriram Raghavan’s ‘Johnny Gaddaar’.

His latest film ‘Hisaab Barabar’ is another addition to his filmography populated by anti-hero roles in movies, including ‘Players’, ‘7 Khoon Maaf’, ‘Prem Ratan Dhan Payo’, ‘Wazir’, ‘Kaththi’ (Tamil), and ‘Kavacham’.

‘Hisaab Barabar’ features R Madhavan in the role of Radhe Mohan Sharma, a railway ticket checker who uncovers a small discrepancy in his bank account. It soon leads to a dangerous journey filled with fraud, deceit and corruption. Neil portrays Mickey Mehta, a ruthless banker in the movie.

“I love playing such grey roles. This is a conscious decision from the very beginning of my career. As an actor, you have to be aware of your strengths, weaknesses, what your audience expects of you and what you want to do and also be reminded that it’s not easy because every shade of grey is different, every character is very different. Every shade and character will have its own trait,” Neil told the top news agency.

Citing the example of Hollywood stars Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger, the actor said it's great to see top actors playing antagonists. “Today, your heroes only want to play dark roles,” he added.

Even then, Neil wants to maintain a balance between ‘good and bad roles’. “I like that range. I try to get some kind of human element into my shade of grey like some guys are bad and some have a human side to them. With this character of Mickey Mehta, I’ve tried to imbibe a certain human element into him.”

The actor said he was initially sceptical about boarding the cast of ‘Hisaab Barabar’ as the plot appeared similar to his Tamil film ‘Kaththi’. Fronted by Vijay, the 2014 movie also had a ‘common man versus system’ kind of commentary.

“I was like, ‘Should I be doing something similar?’ What happens is that subconsciously there are similar traits. But when I heard the story, I felt there was yet another flavour that I could offer. My character isn’t just a bad guy who’s doing bad things, he is somebody who believes what he’s doing is right. He’s all doing it with conviction and it has been presented in a comedic way,” Neil added.