'Special Ops 1.5' star Aadil Khan says 'working with biggies was fantastic, learnt a lot'

Hailing from a small town as a Radio Jockey and making his way into Bollywood, actor Aadil Khan’s journey has been fantastic. The actor, who recently featured in suspense crime thriller Special Ops 1.5: The Himmat Singh story, exclusively replied to some questions by RepublicWorld and shared interesting excerpts from his life. The actor who got his first major break in Vidhu Vinod Chopra's directorial Shikara spoke about his experience of shooting with the 'Bollywood biggies' in the latest hit series.

In Special Ops 1.5, Aadil is seen playing the role of Maninder Singh who turns out rebellious against his own intelligence agency. He claims that long before he was cast for the series, he has been a huge fan of the show. “You know the way Neeraj sir creates the entire universe, plots, story, and characters everything is just fantastic. It’s a dream for anybody, any actor to be a part of such kind of stories and bag such roles", he opined. He is seen sharing screen space with Kay Kay Menon, Aftaab Shivdasani, Parmeet Sethi, and more. 

 “Neeraj sir’s working style is such that he wants everybody to be it his cast or crew to be completely prepared before we go and shoot. So all the readings, the character selection everything happened before we went on the sets. It was fantastic to work with the biggies like Kay Kay bhai and Aftab sir who are great stars", he said with a smile.

Aadil recalled the time where he got a call from a renowned director who was excited to cast him in his film after hearing his voice on the FM. Sharing the anecdote, he said, “There is this beautiful story behind me getting my first break. My mother wanted me to become an actor and even before I had stepped into Mumbai, people used to comment about me lacking in studies. But my mother who is my support pillar used to turn around and tell them that ‘one day my son will make us all proud a will become a great actor.’ Eventually, I got here in Mumbai and started as an RJ. So my mother used to call me and advise me to do nicely as she believed that any producer or director might be listening to me. Though I used to laugh on that thing, someone I later realized how my mother was so accurate.”

Aadil Khan recalls getting his first major break in Bollywood 

Reminiscing the time when his life changed, Aadil shared,

“One day I got a call from Vidhu sir and they told me that they had started casting for their next project Shikara. They wanted a guy with a certain kind of voice. So the casting director after the meeting, tuned on the radio while returning home and heard my voice on the channel. She then instantly decided that my voice was apt for the main lead. That’s when they googled my name and saw my picture. Going through it, they even realized that I do look like a Kashmiri which was the requirement of the script."

For the unversed, the story of Shikara shows Shiv (Aadil) and Shanti (Sadia), a young couple, chronicle their love story amid the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from Kashmir; forced to leave their homes and live as refugees in their own country, the couple, among thousand others, struggle to keep their hopes alive. The film was directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

The actor, who has done several death-defying action sequences in Special Ops 1.5, confessed to undergoing rigorous practicing and rehearsals before stepping into the shoes of Maninder. Elucidating upon the same and sharing some interesting details about his sessions, Aadil said, “Yes, I had to rehearse a lot for the role especially. I got to meet a Hollywood action director who has directed personalities like Bruce Willis and more. Apart from this, there was another action director Peter who designed the choreography for action sequences.”

The story of Special Ops 1.5The Himmat Story revolves around the origins of its eponymous protagonist (Kay Kay Menon) long before he became a legend at RAW, and long before he spread his team of handpicked sleeper agents across the world to bring down Ikhlaq Khan, the terrorist who was behind the 2001 parliament bombing and the unknown mastermind behind the majority of India's terror attacks.

Image: Instagram/aadilkhanitis/Twitter/T2Telegraph