The Passion of Amit Sadh

AMIT SADH, A household name for TV series viewers in the early 2000s and a familiar face on large hoard­ings across Mumbai and Delhi, was re­cently in the national capital to promote the psychological thriller Pune Highway, in which he plays the lead along with Jim Sarbh. The film is directed by Bugs Bhargava Krishna and Rahul da Cunha.

From being one of the youngest stars on television, Sadh has seen the highs and lows of the industry. But the 45-year-old remains unfazed. A La Martinière, Lucknow, alumnus who speaks with a philosophical flourish, he says he wakes up every morning vowing to work hard, stay disciplined and remain honest. “I have my list of ten commandments,” Sadh says in his deep, guttural voice with a public-school accent. “I seek blessings only after having done my part,” he emphasises, noting that, like life, the industry too is full of ups and downs. “I delete parts of my history only after I’ve reconciled with setbacks and misgiv­ings—not before. That helps me stay tough as well as humble,” avers Sadh, who is excited about Pune Highway for more reasons than one. “It’s my first non-studio project. I took up the role because I loved the script—it’s based on a play— and I wanted to explore such themes, friendships, and identity,” he says, shortly after settling in for our interview at his “Guruji’s” home in CR Park, Delhi.

For someone who once did odd jobs, rose to stardom early, and later took a break amid what he describes as self-doubt and turbulence, Sadh knows the value of resilience. When his hockey-playing father sent him to boarding school in Class II, it marked the start of many transitions: working as a security guard at a Benetton showroom in Delhi after graduation, becoming an adven­ture sports trainer in Mukteshwar, and eventually riding down on his Enfield— named Sikandar—to Mumbai in the late 1990s to try his luck in acting. Sadh has lived many lives—perhaps more than nine—and each has added to his resilience, he believes.

The actor shares something not widely known about him: he draws strength from his devotion to Lord Hanuman. “It’s not about arrogance or aggression. That devotion gives you strength—especially the strength to be honest and avoid shortcuts,” he adds.

Many of us know Sadh as a gifted actor celebrated for his versatile performances across film, television, and digital platforms. His breakthrough came with the teen drama Kyun Hota Hai Pyarrr, followed by appearances on reality shows like Bigg Boss 1 and Nach Baliye. He received critical acclaim for his roles in Kai Po Che! (2013), Sultan (2016), and Gold (2018). More recently, he’s become a prominent presence in Indian web series, particu­larly as Inspector Kabir Sawant in Amazon Prime’s Breathe franchise—a role that earned him the Filmfare OTT Award for Best Supporting Actor. His portfolio also includes military and thriller dramas like Avrodh: The Siege Within, Jeet Ki Zid, and Duranga. Over the years, Sadh has earned a reputation for portraying intense, grounded characters with emotional depth.

UT THE REAL Sadh has an approach to cinema—and to life—that is rooted in transformation. Now a vegetarian and a strict disciplinarian, he exudes a quiet spiritual energy, even with his filmstar looks and enthusiasm. “I’ve always been a curious person, and that’s what drives me,” he says. It’s that curiosity which connects him to books, his pets, his spiri­tual pursuits—and still, to the rough-and-tumble world of Bollywood.

In real life, he unwinds with his dogs and immerses himself in books such as The Science of the Soul, Osho’s Geeta Darshan, The Divine Reality, The Path of the Masters, Humanly Possible, Stories of Your Life and Others, and Living with the Himalayan Masters. He quotes Emma Thompson: “I think books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them.”

He returns to talking about Pune Highway. “This film is unlike anything I’ve done before. It was a big gamble. It’s not a studio production— I’ve mostly done massive studio films. I was launched by UTV Disney, then worked for Amazon. I usually avoid non-studio projects.”

But Sadh has never been one to stick to the conventional path. From running away from home to riding from the Himalayas to Mumbai for his first audi­tion to stepping back from fame to learn anew, he’s consistently chosen the road less travelled.

He sold his beloved bike to stay afloat in Mumbai around 2000 before his first audition, and in 2010, sold his home in Malad to study acting at the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in New York. “I decided I had to buckle up. Yes, I was famous—but I needed to learn more. I was in self-doubt and, again, I was curious,” he recalls. At the institute, where he studied various styles of method acting, his classmates called him “Marlon Brando” because of his enthusiasm and commitment to trying out diverse roles.

Sadh returned to India broke. One well-wisher lent him `10 lakh, even while trying to dissuade him from continuing in films. Soon after, he landed a role in Kai Po Che!, alongside Rajkummar Rao and Sushant Singh Rajput. The film, directed by Abhishek Kapoor and based on Chetan Bhagat’s The 3 Mistakes of My Life, was produced by Ronnie Screwv­ala and Siddharth Roy Kapur under UTV Motion Pictures. “It changed my life. I was so lost, wondering—have I made a mistake? Am I meant for movies? There was a lot of self-doubt. But when that film was released, I forgot everything,” he says, adding, “Movies suck the life out of us—and that’s the most important thing in creativity. It gives us hope, but it also demands everything. My character had such a massive arc, and all the turmoil inside me—positive and negative— was channelled into it. By the end, I felt lighter.”

That sounds like something straight out of a Thomas Mann novel—a charac­ter going through emotional extremes, only to return cleansed.

Amiable, down-to-earth, and still full of passion, Sadh says he acts because it allows him to live lives he otherwise couldn’t. A football fanatic and an ad­mirer of Daniel Day-Lewis, he still takes his bike out for trips—most recently to Ladakh, and soon, he hopes, to the North East as well as to Latin America. For Sadh, the success of a film ultimately comes down to how convincingly an actor can inhabit a character, and make them unforgettable.

actorAmit SadhBollywoodcinemaJim SarbhPune Highway