#KetchupTalks: 'The Hunt tells both sides of the story, without labelling anyone right or wrong', says actor Sahil Vaid

In this interview, actor Sahil Vaid discusses SonyLiv's upcoming show, The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case, and how he prepared to portray a CBI officer.

Bollywood actor Sahil Vaid, known for his versatile performances in films such as Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania and Dil Bechara, ventures into new territory with his upcoming web series, The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case. In this intense political thriller, Vaid portrays CBI officer SP Amit Verma, a pivotal character in the real-life investigation following the tragic assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. In an exclusive interview, Vaid shares the profound depth of his preparation, the ethical tightrope he walked during filming, and the profound impact of working with National Award-winning director Nagesh Kukunoor, while also sharing insights into portraying Officer Verma and the research he undertook to portray the character with authenticity.

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Read all about it here!

Can you share how you prepared to portray real-life CBI officer Amit Verma and which historical records or personal accounts you accessed that shaped your performance?

I had to do a lot of reading while preparing for SP Amit Verma, which involved numerous internet searches. I read about the Jain Commission report and what kind of officer he was. Additionally, there was a lot of conversation with people who had spoken with SP Verma himself, including those who had played tennis with him. A lot of research and understanding of what kind of person he might be has been done. And at the same time, there weren’t any interviews or any video of him speaking shared with me, since they didn’t exist, considering he worked in the CBI and that they generally don’t prefer staying in the limelight, so it was a little difficult to research them. But since it was such a famous issue back in the day, some accounts are available. There are descriptions of these six men available on the internet. Also, the conversations that I've had with Mr. Nagesh Kukunoor, helped me a lot in preparing for this role and preparing to play an IPS officer in a very realistic fashion. I've been a huge fan of a lot of IPS officers, including Mr. Rakesh Maria,  who has been the commissioner of police here in Mumbai. I've always been fascinated by these IPS officers, so I brought a lot of that know-how, a lot of that fandom into playing SP Amit Verma.

The series dives into the intense investigation following Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. What was the most challenging aspect of stepping into the shoes of these investigators during such a pivotal moment in Indian history?

There was no challenge as such, but there was always a concern to keep it sensitive. It's a very sensitive topic, it's a part of our history,  it's undeniable, it happened, and everybody knows it. There are different opinions on why it might have happened and who did what, but then again, hearsay and facts are two completely different things. We are artists, and our job is to portray both sides of the story, so there are things that you believe and then as an artist, when you're preparing for something and those belief systems are broken, then you delve into the other side of the story and do so without sounding too controversial about it. There's a very beautiful line in the show that kind of stayed with me: “One man's terrorist is another man's hero”. Think about this line in a very philosophical sense. It's true, isn't it? Somebody's villain is somebody else's hero, and somebody's hero is somebody's villain. Who is to say who's completely right and who's completely wrong? The most confusing and difficult aspect to accept was removing the concept of right and wrong from this entire equation. Nobody's a hero, nobody's a villain, everybody is purpose-driven. My character even says, "Like you have a purpose, I have a purpose", that's how soldiers are. So that was a hard pill to swallow because taking sides is very easy. I'm from this side, you're from that side, you're my enemy, I'm your enemy. It's very easy to say that, but having that maturity to understand that everybody is out there for a cause, but what they do and how they conduct themselves while fighting for a particular cause determines who is correct and who is not, and it's something that's really open to everybody's judgment. That's how most of the people in this world function. There's always one good country, one bad country, and two countries are fighting together. One of them is the villain, the other is the hero. One country is the hero for some people, and the other country is the hero for the other people. Therefore, there's no definitive way to determine who is right and who is wrong. That aspect of this show was the most difficult pill for me personally to digest.

How did working with National Award-winning director Nagesh Kukunoor influence your approach to your roles in this political thriller?

He didn't feel like a national award-winning director; he felt like an elder brother, and he was very supportive. His guidance, his actions, and his words were all so on point. I can say on point because I'm out of the process now. I can look at the whole thing from an outside perspective and say, what we've done, whatever he's made us do, was absolutely to the point. There is a reason why the government has recognised him as a national award winner, and that only goes to show that he deserves way more recognition. I've always been a fan of his work, and I'm even more of a fan after having worked for him as an actor.

The show is based on Anirudhya Mitra’s book Ninety Days. Did you read the book as part of your preparation, and how did it help you understand the gravity of the investigation?

Not before the preparation. In fact, I discovered that the show was based on the book while filming it, and that's when I picked up the book. As I read it, I was surprised because parts of it felt like fiction, whereas they were not. It's actually, firsthand accounts of conversations Mitra sahab has had with Mr. Verma, I was told that he was the man who would play tennis with him. There was a lot of conversation between SP Amit Verma and Anirudhya. But this story, I'm glad it's out, it's been preserved, and it's out there. It will, if anything, teach the coming generations that hatred is of no use. Fighting for a cause is one thing, but there is a way to fight for your rights, and there is always a correct way and there's always a wrong way, and I think that's the best takeaway that we can take from this story. This book, although it feels like fiction, is a marvellous account of what happened in the early 90s. A lot of high-ranking officers and a lot of capable people were involved, and they did what they could to the best of their ability. I'm proud that we've had officers like those in the past, when there was no way to do detective work other than being on the ground. Old school detective work had to be done because there were no cell phones, there was no internet, there was no digital footprint of any sort, and finding people out of thin air. It must have been like finding a needle in a haystack back then, so I’m glad that this story was told, and I'm so glad that 90 Days was written. I have all praise and thanks to Anirudhya, who decided to write this book.

Sahil, you’ve worked in diverse roles across films like Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania and Dil Bechara. How did portraying a CBI officer in a true-crime series like The Hunt differ from your previous experiences?

I'll give you an analogy: when you know how to drive, you can drive any vehicle. It's just a matter of getting used to the size, the weight, and the length of the vehicle. Once you get used to it, you can drive a small car like the Maruti Alto, or you can drive a semi-truck. The rules are the same. So, as an actor, my training did not have any specific characters when I was training. I was not trained to play only comic roles or to play only the hero's friends. My training as an actor was my training as a holistic performer. Whatever kind of role that comes my way, it requires a bit more training like The Hunt required. Also, SP Amit Verma required a kind of resolve that I, as a person, probably wouldn't have in real life, but I had to portray it, so I had to go through that whole process of how police officers think and are educated; they are highly intelligent police officers. IPS is not an easy exam to crack. I have sat for competitive government exams. I've cracked my UPSC exams, so I understand the kind of knowledge and the understanding that goes into cracking these UPSC, Union Public Service Commission examinations, there's the Intelligence Bureau, there's the CDS, the Combined Defense Services, there's IPS, there's IAS, all these people, they, they cut out from a very different cloth. I am not saying that they're not normal people, but they're very special. Very specially abled, intelligent beings. I'm an artist, my job is to entertain, but every now and then we get an opportunity as actors to portray such beautiful roles where you have to tap into the intelligence of an intelligence officer or a CBI officer, so it takes that much amount of preparation as far as the majority of the character is concerned. The subtlety with which we have to portray these characters is a sense of responsibility. People who know such people in their lives or people who are such people will agree with our performances and say, hey, you know what, that guy looks like an IPS officer. That guy walks and talks like an IPS officer, that's the main goal of characters like these. So although whatever diverse roles you have done, as an actor, if you're not able to perform different roles, it's better you go back in training, do a little more theater, do these kinds of roles on stage, and come back and maybe then give the director what he wants. In this show, Mr. Kukunoor didn't demand too much from me, but he demanded something that I'd never done before as an actor, and I'm very glad that he did because it made me explore a lot of myself as an actor in this show.

The trailer highlights themes of espionage, blurred loyalties, and the human cost of justice. How did you both approach conveying the emotional and ethical dilemmas your characters faced during the investigation?

You know, I'm very young to quote on this because when this happened, I was hardly 6 or 7 years old. But when you say blurred loyalties, it hurts me to think that there were times when some people from our country were sympathetic to the LTTE people, and sometimes the LTTE people were sympathetic to our people. It's a good thing when people, support each other and their own community, but when something like an assassination takes place, something so serious happens, I think the loyalties kind of go back to where they're supposed to be, and it's a very strict and a very hard statement to make, but, killing anyone, killing people or threatening people is never the solution. Dialogue is always a great way to kind of resolve issues around the world and as far as this dark phase of our history is concerned, it's behind us. We can talk about it openly. We can make shows about what happened back in the day, but we should never forget that loyalties go both ways. So without mentioning any names, I would just like to say that violence is never a solution, dialogue is always a solution, and, fighting for your rights, fighting for your freedom is never a bad idea if it's done tastefully, if it's done within the realms of humanity. And that's what was lacking in this story. So it's heartbreaking, but since it's part of the story, and our history, it's undeniable. It's there for everybody to see, and I am too young to kind of go back and say, he was wrong, or he was right. In these kinds of situations, nobody's right, and nobody is wrong. That's how I see it.

What was the dynamic like between you and the other actors on set, given that most of the characters are part of the same Special Investigation Team (SIT)? Did you collaborate to build the camaraderie of the team?

Luckily, some of them were friends from the industry. Amit Sial is my senior from the theatre, and we've done a play together. I had already interacted with him before, so it was a beautiful experience coming together again, and him playing my senior officer very rightly. Girish Sharma, who plays Radha Vinod Raju, is also my junior from college. The weird thing is he is playing my senior in the show, so that didn't take much for us to prepare. The new people I worked with on the show were Bagavathi Perumal, who is an amazing actor and an amazing person to work with. He comes with a lot of experience and has worked his way up through the ranks. He was an assistant director with Gotham Menon, one of my favourite directors, and eventually, now he's become an actor and a good one, and I enjoy watching his films and watching him perform. Working with him was a breeze, and he was always welcoming of ideas. He was always a man of few words, but on set, there wasn’t much hassle connecting or interacting with these guys. And then there was Danish Iqbal, another thespian, and when theatre people meet, you just become friends right from the word go, and you can see that in the show when I interact with his character, Amod Kant, my senior. SP Amit Verma and Amod Kant were good friends and were the same age. Amit Verma should have been a DIG, but he did not become a DIG because people say he was very fiery and not as composed as Amod Kant. You always have a rebel kid in the gang. I was the rebel kid in this gang. It was a lot of fun.

What do you hope audiences take away from The Hunt in terms of understanding the complexities of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and the efforts of the investigators?

I want the audience to take away the fact that nobody's wrong and nobody's right. The audience needs to know about this piece of history, and it's free for the audience to determine whose side they want to take. This show tells both sides of the story, and the beautiful thing about this show is that it doesn't give any opinions on who's right and who's wrong. I would like to remind people that hatred is not always the solution. Everybody makes mistakes, but mistakes can't be repaid with violence or hatred, or even if you want to hate somebody, it's your choice. Hating someone and acting upon it are two completely different things. We hate a lot of people in life, but we don't resort to violence or revenge or go into that whole idea of getting revenge; there's this sense of he did that to us, we will do worse to him. It never ends. It never ends well, there's no solution, no end to fighting. We should learn from the Mahabharata. Our scriptures beautifully teach us that taking sides is never a solution. And, for people who may or may not agree with me, it's very easy to say, these people were right, these were the villain party, these were the hero party, but it's never that black and white. It's always grey. We might think that we're on the right side of the law, or we're always on the right side of history, or we're always on the right side, but that's just selfish behavior, we're not thinking about the other person's point of view. The only takeaway the audience can have from a show like this is no matter what happens, there are ways to do things. There are certain ways to, get your point across. Violence, revenge, and hatred are the worst possible ways to kind of have a solution for anything. It never benefited anybody in history. It will never benefit anyone in the future.

Which of Sahil Vaid's characters is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below!

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