Nandish Sandhu on length of his character in Jubilee: It's the impact that is more important | Exclusive

It was around a decade ago when Nandish Sandhu became a household name with his role in Uttaran. Now, in 2023, he has attained a whole new level of popularity after delivering an incredible performance as Jamshed Khan in Vikramaditya Motwane's Jubilee. In the Prime Video series, although his character dies in the first episode, he makes appearances now and then in flashbacks and also while haunting the characters of Aparshakti Khurana and Sidhant Gupta. Despite having less screen time than his co-stars, Nandish has definitely become an actor to watch out for in Jubilee.

During an exclusive interaction with OTTplay, when asked if the length of the role matters to him in the larger scheme of things, Nandish stated, "No, I don't think so. That way, I think it's not the length; it's the impact of that character that is more important. And the show's creators did a beautiful job of that. I also feel there is a lot of connection; it's been written so beautifully with Jamshed Khan's character, despite his lesser screen time, and has made a place in the hearts of the audience. I think the character is written so beautifully that people connected with it in a very short time. When I was reading it, I had no idea how it was going to turn out. Obviously, I knew that it was a powerful character. Jamshed Khan has a powerful personality. But I had no idea that it would connect so well with the audience."

Talking about his crucial scene with Aditi Rao Hydari in the series, the actor went on to say, "She only knew that she was standing in front of Jamshed, and I knew I was only standing in front of Sumitra. There was no Nandish or Aditi there. Because I didn't know her as a person, I only knew that because Sumitra was standing there, I could do that. I think this would be the same for her, plus Vikram Sir was there. In the makeup room scene, when Sumitra comes in and asks Jamshed about his decision, Jamshed doesn't say anything. Actually, he was supposed to, but Vikram sir said, 'Let's play with the silence.' I think that has worked beautifully. When he sits behind the monitor and sees you, I believe the small things he does to quietly tell you or simply take you to the side work beautifully for the scene."

Nandish further said, "One more thing that I would want to add is that Jamshed is an artist who is a stage artist in the show, and he's got a complicated personality. He's strong, but at the same time, he's vulnerable. He was considering what he should and should not do. Actors, anyway, have complicated personalities, and above that, to play an artist onscreen who is even more complicated took time for me to understand. But once I got it, I thought it was slightly easier."

Sharing about how Motwane brought out the best in him with the word 'fear', the actor revealed, "One thing that Vikram sir told me on the first day was that we were doing the first take, and I was doing it very fearlessly. 'Main Jamshed hoon aur mujhe farak nahi padta,' that was the thought. But when he came and told me, Fear,' he was scared now about what would happen; he was going to lose Sumita, he was going to lose his theatre, and all that. I don't know, but just that one word did something."

All episodes of Jubilee are currently streaming on Prime Video.