New Delhi, Actor Manu Rishi Chadha says he has been getting love with a pinch of hate for his turn as former Pakistan army chief Pervez Musharraf in Netflix war drama series ‘Operation Safed Sagar’.”People have told me, ‘If we didn’t love you, we would only hate you’ and that they are experiencing this strange kind of ‘love filled with hate’ for the character,” said Chadha, who is known for rib-tickling performances in movies such as ‘Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!’, ‘Mithya’, ‘Ankhon Dekhi’, ‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns’, ‘Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan’.Though it isn’t the first time he has played a negative or darker character, Chadha is getting a lot of praise for his restrained portrayal of Musharraf, who was the architect behind the 1999 Kargil War that began with the infiltration of Pakistani troops into positions on the Indian side of the Line of Control.”I have been receiving long messages from people who were deeply hurt by what happened in 1999… That is why I felt that while it may be easier to forgive Pakistan, forgiving Musharraf would not be as easy.”Even people from the armed forces messaged me and said they were deeply affected,” the actor told PTI in an interview.Chadha said when he took on the role, he was worried that people might think that he is a bad person in real life as well.”Sometimes it can work the other way, people may start thinking that if the character is such, then the actor must also be like that. Thankfully, I had done comedy before and had made people laugh and feel affection for me, so they understood that I had acted well and that I was not actually like the character. Otherwise, it would have become very difficult.”Inspired by the Indian Air Force’s role during the 1999 Kargil War, “Operation Safed Sagar” follows the Golden Arrows Squadron as a group of young fighter pilots undertake high-altitude combat missions while navigating the emotional and personal costs of war.Chadha is part of the show’s ensemble cast that also includes Jimmy Shergill, Siddharth, Abhay Verma, Adil Hussain, Mihir Ahuja, Taaruk Raina, Arnav Bhasin, Amrita Bagchi, Dia Mirza and Prajakta Koli.He has essayed Musharraf with a certain degree of restraint, not showing him as a stereotypical villain, and this has been lauded by both the viewers and critics.Chadha said the character was drawn in detail by the show’s writers and they told him to play him not like a conventional villain.”Musharraf was a real person, but what mattered first was what had been written about him and how he would behave. I started looking for ways to understand him. You can learn a lot from YouTube – his mannerisms, the way he spoke and so on. For me, adopting the way he spoke would have been easy. And being comfortable is very important when you are playing a character,” he said.The actor credited fellow artist Nawazuddin Siddiqui for helping him understand how to approach the character of Musharraf.”When I went on YouTube, I found a lot of things interesting. But then I happened to meet Nawazuddin Siddiqui. I was actually there to narrate a film to him, and I asked him how he had approached playing (writer Saadat Hasan) Manto. He told me, ‘I didn’t have a visual reference. I had read about him, and I put my faith in Nandita (Das, director). I would use my acting process to see whether what she was telling me connected with my human mind and heart’. I followed that approach.The performance could easily become caricaturish, Chadha said, adding that he consciously looked out for alternatives instead of going into “a typical Bollywood-style outburst” to express emotions.”I worked on stillness. That is very important when you are playing a character with a certain dignity. There is a point where you observe and feel before you speak – the eyes come before the dialogue.”Asked about his newfound fame post the release of “Operation Safed Sagar”, people who had admired his work for years but never knew his name are now recognising him.”Sometimes you get love, sometimes you don’t. I survived even when I wasn’t getting that love, and now that I am getting it, I will live even more. It isn’t necessary for everyone to know you,” he said.
