Exclusive! Good Luck Jerry actor Sahil Mehta: I auditioned for both Jigar and Jagdish’s parts

Good Luck Jerry made its way onto OTT on Friday. The film, starring Janhvi Kapoor, saw Sahil Mehta essay the role of Jigar, a young man with his foot in the world of drugs and crime. In an exclusive chat with OTTplay, Sahil spoke of how he had landed the role of the spirited young man, who does not let the intensity of his ‘profession’ dull his cheerful nature.

Sahil reveals that he had auditioned for Good Luck Jerry, directed by Sidharth Sengupta, back in October 2020. The actor spoke of how he had been keen to work with the makers as they were always on the lookout for fresh talent and they were always searching for new people to be a part of the industry .

The actor spoke of how he had given auditions for two parts in the film, for the characters of Jigar and Jagdish. “So I auditioned for two parts. One was Jadish’s character, which is the guy who's in love with Jerry. I auditioned for that and that audition was my breakthrough with the team and they really liked it. And then Sidharth sir liked the audition as well. And then they told me to audition for another part. So I auditioned for Jigar.

After that my look test was done and I went to see Sidharth sir in Mumbai. they were still confused about whether I should play Jigar or Jagdish. In the end they decided on the former.”

The actor said that just before his role was finalised, he had been going through the script, and was impressed by Jigar’s characterisation. “Jigar is something else. It's not that Jagdish was a bad character to play, but I felt Jigar was next level and I was blown away by him. There’s this line of his where he says ‘hum ne police ko charon tharaf se gher liya hain’, which made me crack up and laugh so hard. I was sure audiences would feel the same way about Jigar.

I was envious of whoever would get to play the character, and curious to know who would get the part. But then I went down to the office and was informed that I had gotten the part.”

On how the makers finalised Jigar’s appearance, Sahil spoke of how the makers had tried to figure out how Jigar would look even after he had given the look test. Sahil had made sure to send his two sets of audition tapes, one with a turban and the other without, since Jigar was a Punjabi.

Jigar’s Punjabi background played a huge role in the way the makers conceived his physical appearance. As the character would be one to spend a lot of time in the sun, the makers had asked Sahil to try and get as tanned as he could. The actor had applied oil on his body, soaking in sunlight for upto 10-15 days. Makeup had also been used for the purpose. Sahil also made sure to grow out his own hair for the character as well, right upto the prominent monobrow.

The actor also looked to his Punjabi friend for inspiration as well for the character. Jigar was also a character who was very mischievous, so the character was given a visible scar on his face as well through makeup. Sahil had also consulted with the makers to perfect Jigar’s body language as well.

Sahil says he loves being involved in the characterisation process of the roles he plays. “I'm always curious to play the kind of characters who push me to be someone I’m not. If I'm being Sahil only then I don't think there's any challenge for me as an actor. I need to get on my knees and I need to put in the work. Nahi tho maza nahi aata mujhe”.

Catch Sahil as Jigar in Good Luck Jerry, available to stream on Disney+Hotstar.