Exclusive! Akshay Oberoi on Gaslight: Playing a slimy character like Rana was exciting

Even though the recently released film Gaslight, starring Sara Ali Khan, did not quite impress the critics and audience, it is interesting to note that actor Akshay Oberoi’s performance as Rana Jai Singh has been widely appreciated.

Currently busy shooting for action-thriller Fighter, starring Deepika Padukone and Hrithik Roshan, Akshay spoke with OTTplay about looking at his own work from a distance, and why he thinks critical validation and audiences’ reaction to his work matter to him the most.

“Now that the film is released and I am working on a different project, I can watch the film and my character from a distance. As an actor when I play a character, instead of judging the character, I try to be that person. Now that I am away from the world of that story, I can say Rana Jai Singh is a really slimy, creepy kind of character. And believe me, I am not slimy in real life! Perhaps, that is the reason why I found him so exciting to play on-screen.”

The actor has majorly found his success in the OTT space with his web series like It’s Not That Simple, Bar Code, The Test Case, Flesh and Inside Edge (Season 3), among others.

When asked if a critical review of a film or web series matters to him, the actor promptly replied, “Yes, what the critics and the audience are saying about my work, my film is extremely important to me. There are two reasons behind it. Firstly, I started my career from zero and after a long struggle I have reached here. Whatever visibility I have got and the work that followed, is totally based on how the audiences accepted me and what critics have written about my work. I keep getting more work and a variety of them is only because every time I took a risk, the audience liked it.”

Adding to that, he said, “The reason why I am in this profession is that I love acting and it is a medium where we are serving the audience. So, I would love to hear it from someone who walks up to me and says that they loved my character in a film more than how I looked on-screen. I get both, but a review of my performance fuels my energy really.”

The film Gaslight is a mystery thriller, directed by Pavan Kripalani. Also starring Chitrangada Singh, Vikrant Massey, Rahul Dev and Shishir Sharma among others, the series is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.