A million actors in Mumbai – One of them is Nirmal

About one year ago I was in Mumbai for a few months. And I ended up in an area where almost everyone I met was in to acting and modelling. Ok, there are a lot of people of every kind, but I mean among them who would come up to me and start a conversation in English, most of them would be into modelling and acting. So many people involved in film making or somehow related to the Indian film industry, not least the Bollywood industry. One of the guys I met and became friends with was Nirmal. An actor and model based in the competitive megacity Mumbai. Acting is an admirable and very demanding, creative profession. I just thought I wanted to write a little post on here about him since he is such a hardworking and humble guy that deserves a lot of respect. He is one of the guys I made a little funny clip/short film with in one of the genuine slum areas of Bombay City. It was pretty cool and I hope to post the clip soon. Here is his own reply to a few questions I just had to ask him about his profession.

 

So Nirmal. How would you present yourself in words? Who are you?

I’m just a person who is in search of his destination. My destination is way ahead but I’m trying hard to get there. Life is full of struggles and hard challenges. Sometimes it’s a struggle just to get enough for your dinner. But I’m hopeful and optimistic. A ray of hope is always there.

What kind of jobs do you do?

I’m a struggling actor in Mumbai. We attend to different auditions and sometimes you get picked for a job. Sometimes you get good gigs. It is like freelancing. That’s how the process is for us.

So you are an actor. Please tell me, is it easier to play yourself or to play a character on camera or a stage?

For me it works both ways. I’m comfortable in playing a character and I am comfortable playing me. The only difference is that I have to work harder in being me, which I am not. On stage or on camera you have to be honest with your character while playing the person you are or any other character. You have to feel free in doing whatever that character you are playing can do to an extent that don’t restrict yourself.

What is the biggest challenge with taking on a role when acting?

The biggest challenge is knowing the soul of the character. We can only go to that extent by doing our work with full honesty and dedication. To know that character you have to do research and learn the mannerism, the body language and the phycology etc. of the character you are playing. That is something that comes with hard work and experience.

As you can understand Nirmal is a person who has some depth in him and I believe Nirmal has a great future in front of him. I really wish him all the best and I hope to do some work with him again in the future. Probably next time I am in Mumbai. He is also a part of the KZ group. An independent film making group that writes and produce their own TV series which is now on available for streaming on a site called Hotflix. I’ve seen some of their early horror scens in black and white. And it was pretty awesome. They are passionate artist souls. I think they have a great future ahead of them as a group. They are all creatives and living and working in Mumbai is pretty tough. Believe me, it is a journey out of this world. Further on I think I’ll write a post about them all as a group.