THE ROAD TO PERDITION

ANKUR BHATIA LEFT A CAREER ON WALL STREET TO MAKE IT BIG AS AN ACTOR IN MUMBAI. AFTER SUCCESSFUL STINTS ON OTT, HE'S PREPPING FOR THE RELEASE OF AN ACTION-PACKED FEATURE, WHICH IS UNLIKE ANYTHING HE'S EVER DONE BEFORE

- Priya Kumari Rana

The 6’3” actor, who became an audience favourite as Sangram Singh in the OTT production Aarya and Aarya 2 with Sushmita Sen, is all set to appear in action-packed thriller Bloody Daddy, directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, opposite Shahid Kapur, filmed in Abu Dhabi. “I play a whacky character,” says Ankur Bhatia, on the phone from Mumbai. “Unlike anything I’ve ever done before. It’s quite experimental and I really enjoyed it, and put in a lot of hard work into it. I’m waiting for the release!”

The Bhopal-born actor says that the action sequences for web series Crackdown, directed by Apoorva Lakhia, had him well prepared for his current film (he plays a Pakistani army officer, with hand-to-hand combat scenes with Saqib Saleem, who plays an Indian army officer), that had Ali Abbas tweeting: ‘Are you ready for this mad ride of guns & gangs’. “Action is always fun,” says Ankur. “You give us guys guns; there are punches and kicks — it’s tough and exhausting, and an adrenaline rush when you’re shooting action.” And you don’t need martial arts training to shoot the hand-to-hand combat scenes. “It’s like song choreography,” says Ankur. “There’s no particular technique — just somersaults, kicks, with props like a table that’s to be broken.”

In Aarya and