Quotes from Tahir Raj Bhasin

I spent my childhood all over the country. In certain parts where I grew up, films were this fantasy world.

I spend Diwali in Delhi because it's such a big festival.

There's so much information out there. There are written biographies of Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, there are interviews, and we have had the benefit of meeting these players. There's a physical and psychological aspect, and combining these two is what will help '83' connect with the millenials and cricket lovers.

As an actor, 'Chhichhore' has been one of the most creatively fulfilling projects and I thank my director Nitesh Tiwari for making me a part of his vision.

Every time a medal is won on the national or international platform, our country really enjoys winners but we don't appreciate the effort that goes into creating winners.

I really believe quality over quantity and 'Mardaani' was really well-received. It got me critical acclaim and box-office success, both.

The digital medium gives you the license to talk about many things as compared to movies. It is quicker than shooting for a film.

I want to do interesting characters with depth, which are a part of great stories. In fact, if the character is quirky and challenging, that's even better.

I look forward to parts that have a dimension or depth to them. This makes it interesting for me to do and the audience to watch. Whether he's a chocolate boy die hard romantic or a gangster with swag, every good has a little bad and every bad has a little good in them.

I want to explore diverse genres.

I want to take up work in different genres.

There is enough work for everyone. So there is no fear when I look at other people doing well. But it makes you realise that its important to ensure that you keep your quality up.

To play the role of a sports champion, I first needed to break my body and become supremely fit to convincingly look like a college athlete. Along with acing sporting disciplines, I also had to balance the emotional graph and light heartedness of a college drama while competing in varying sport! Combining the two drained a lot out of me.

I greatly admire how the essence of Nitesh Tiwari's films resonate with you long after you've left the theatre.

I get the feeling that audiences have become mature and they understand that not every character is in black or white. There can be grey shades to it.

It's challenging playing grey characters because there's no right way and you get to make your own rules.

When 'Mardaani' came out, one of the great compliments was that we hated the character but we loved the guy. So that was a great compliment to get, especially from female fans.

As long as the actor is able to maintain an emotional relatability with the audience, he or she will be loved by them.

Derek, my character, in 'Chhichhore' is actually based on the director's real life senior in engineering college and I had no clue about it till he took me to Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

As much effort it takes in nailing great comic timing, it takes the same effort to ace any dance step or a romantic dialogue. All of them have their different space.

I'm truly humbled to work with epic minds like Nitesh Tiwari and Kabir Khan.

When people see me as Gavaskar on screen, I want them to feel that they are looking at the person that they have known and when I play on screen, it should remind them of how he played.

When you are doing a film about real people, you don't have a lot of manoeuvrability when it comes to how much you can add by way of imagination. You have to replicate what they were like. What you can add to it is your version of it.

On the sets of the movie 'Manto,' I found that one of the challenges of embodying real-life stories is the mixed medium of facts and imagination, and how one's collage of experiences colour ones representation on celluloid.