EXCLUSIVE! Jaideep Ahlawat on Netflix's ‘Jewel Thief - The Heist Begins': ‘Percentage of good cinema has increased now'

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28-04-2025

In an EXCLUSIVE interview with Firstpost, Jaideep Ahlawat talks about his film 'Jewel Thief - The Heist Begins', how he chooses his roles and more read more
In Netflix's 'Jewel Thief - The Heist Begins', Jaideep Ahlawat plays a complex, ruthless character who actually is an underworld don, but to the outside world he is an art collector. His paintings are stained with real human blood after countless smashes with his fist.
In an interview with Firstpost, he talks about how he gets into each and every character, why he hates being called a method actor and more.
Edited excerpts from the interview:
How do you choose your role differently all the time? Even Jaane Jaan was very different and it got into our heads so hard that we kept thinking about it even after we finished watching the film.
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I try to surprise myself all the time. While picking up a role, I try to understand how different it is going to be and I also ask myself each time whether I will be able to pull it off or not.
When you prepare for a role for that matter, do you see yourself in the mirror… are you a method actor?
No actually there is a process in finding, but I am not a 'method actor'. I actually don't like this word because it's misused by many people. For me it always starts with reading the part and the script again and again. And of course there is a web around the character that you are playing. And there is a director who guides you and then putting on the costume, you slowly get into the role.
Cinema is changing…
Good cinema is always like that where every role is important and not just of the hero whether it is cinema made in the 70s, 80s or 90s. If you talk about Indian cinema you will understand that there was always good cinema and cinema that made sense and where every actor or character of the story was as important as the lead actor. Only change is that the percentage of that kind of cinema is growing.
As an audience we are also evolving, initially the filmmakers had an idea that whatever will be given to us we will take. But that isn't the scene now.
I totally agree with this. The point is that the percentage of good cinema has increased now. Let's go a little behind, it was Ram Gopal Varma who changed everything. He got Manoj Bajpayee where he went on killing every one (referring to Satya). Every actor in that film is as important as he is. So, my point is good cinema was always there.
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WATCH the trailer of Netflix's 'Jewel Thief - The Heist Begins' here:
This interview was taken before the release of Jewel Thief on Netflix