After playing Sudhir in Special Ops 2, how Tahir Raj Bhasin has become a style icon…
Wickedness has rarely been as delectable as Tahir Raj Bhasin’s Sudhir in Special Ops Season 2. A charmer by all means, we wonder if Tahir’s dimpled charm works in his favour or becomes a detriment in his bad guy act.
“Indeed, it is a razor’s edge, a delicate balancing act to match style with gravitas,” says Tahir. But he is more than happy that directors like Neeraj Pandey build on the character arcs of antagonists as much as that of protagonists.
He is doubly excited that viewers also pay attention to the smallest details. While many fans keep asking him about the brand of his sunglasses and suits, critics even compare his sartorial choices to that of ace villain Ajit. But neither he nor his creator-director had the ‘Mona darling’ badman in mind while conceiving the character. He shares, “Mr Pandey has no reference points ever. Probably I derived more from Al Pacino’s Tony Montana mind-set in Scarface.”
Since Tahir created a splash back in 2014 with the chilling portrait of a kingpin of human trafficking in Mardaani, he has been naturally gravitating towards disruptive ‘out of the box,’ parts. Though Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein begins as a love story, his character soon acquires grey shades. Between reprising a part as in Yeh Kaali… Season 2 and becoming a new entrant in an already successful franchise (Special Ops), he finds both challenging. “On the sets of Special Ops 2, for a few days, I felt like a new kid in school. I had to fit in. Fortunately, both the cast and the director were very welcoming.”
Right from his Mardaani days, Tahir has been in the company of some great actors. From Rani Mukerji he learnt how to get into the character at the snap of fingers. Nawazuddin Siddiqui made him understand the confidence which comes with being self-made. With Kay Kay Menon, he realised how ‘less is more.’
Interestingly, though he has already worked with celebrated directors like Pradeep Sarkar, Kabir Khan and Nitesh Tiwari, he still has a wish-list. He would love to be part of Reema Kagti and Shoojit Sircar’s cinematic world.
Headlining a web series or smaller part in blockbusters? He admits, “Bigger part in big budget films indeed is every actor’s dream.” Right now, anyway, he sure is living a dream and is on cloud nine.
On terra firma, talking of his roots, this Punjabi lad from Delhi is not so fluent in Punjabi. But since he rubbed shoulders with Ammy Virk in ‘83 and shared a round table conference with Diljit Bhaji, he is not unfamiliar with Pollywood. Acting in a Punjabi film is aye aye, but he is more fascinated by Punjabi music videos.
Having already walked in the shoes of Sunil Gavaskar (’83) and actor Shyam (Manto), one character he would like to etch is of Rakesh Sharma, India’s first space hero and former IAF officer.
He refuses to spill the beans on why the handsome actor, who has figured in the top 50 most desirable men list, is still single. All he would say is, “There, was a certain mystique about earlier actors for they kept their personal lives private and I am old school in that sense.”
To all the curious cats out there his entreaty is ‘follow my career graph’, which by all accounts is going great guns. And, disrupting the status quo too.
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