Mumbai: Actor Saqib Saleem during the 61st Britannia Filmfare Awards in Mumbai on January 15, 2016. (Photo: IANS)
Mumbai, May 18 (IANS) Actor Saqib Saleem, who plays a cricketer in the film, "Dishoom", says that he is not playing star cricketer Virat Kohli and was not offered that role but it was his own decision to model his character on him.
About reports that he is playing Virat in the film, Saqib said in an interview, "Of course he is a cricketer but not Virat Kohli. I'm a Virat Kohli fan and I really love how he plays his game, how passionate he is. And when I got this role, I thought because of the fact that he is my favourite cricketer, why don't I make it around him. It has been a fun journey."
"Cricket is my first love and I got the opportunity to become a cricketer; there are two passions of mine -- acting and cricket -- and I got to combine these two, so that was a good feeling," Saqib added.
Saqib was a part of the Mumbai Heroes team in the Celebrity Cricket League. He was also a part of the under-19 team in Delhi, where he was brought up.
"I played a lot of cricket, watched a lot of videos of Virat and other cricketers, just tried to make him a soldier on a mission, like how Virat plays his game. When he is batting, it doesn't seem that he will get out. We feel that even if we have to make 400 runs, Virat alone would make it.
He has given us that confidence and I wanted to get that confidence into this character. I even had interactions with the director," he said about his preparations for the role.
"Dishoom" also stars Varun Dhawan, John Abraham and Jacqueline Fernandez and has been tagged as a masala action comedy, directed by Rohit Dhawan.
"It is a very intelligent commercial film; it has all the elements of a commercial film but there is an intelligence as well in it. I feel it is the best commercial film you will see in a long time because it is very well crafted, there is a good graph in the film," he added.
Saqib added that though the hot weather during the shoot in Abu Dhabi was challenging, he actually enjoyed it as he likes shooting outdoors and in the sun.
