It was worth the wait

Gurnaaz Kaur

As his film Nadhoo Khan is all set to hit the box office, Harish Verma is quite sure it will be liked by the audience. Excited to be back on the big screen after a gap of one year, Harish says it was a well-deserved break. 

“It’s true that Nadhoo Khan is coming after exact one year of Golak Bugni...I wanted to do something that is content driven. I did get offers in between but those weren’t stories I could relate with. I was looking for a good script and Nadhoo Khan fulfilled the criterion.” 

Directed by Imran Sheikh and penned by Sukhjinder Singh Babbal, this Loud Roar Films and Music Tym production is a period film shot in Rajasthan and Fazilka. While Harish is playing the titular role, opposite him is Wamiqa Gabbi. The film, he says, focuses on family relations, showcases sports of the ’40s and how the games brought people together. 

In all this, he plays Channan, who considers himself Nadhoo Khan—a man who keeps dreaming and feels he knows it all till reality strikes him and he has no option but to be the real Nadhoo Khan. 

That was about the film, but has the real scenario of the industry also pushed him into being more than an actor. Considering there are mostly singer-actors, has that made him jump the bandwagon and become a singer too? And pat comes the answer, “Not at all. In fact, the first time I stepped on the stage in class 6 as a singer. I’ve always had a penchant for music. During college days I joined Gursharan Singh ji’s theatre group and we travelled across Punjab with plays. At that point all my attention was on acting. Television and films followed. But now that people know me, I thought why not make use of this gap between two films, like this past year, and bring my love for music back into life. So, I started doing one or two songs a year and my friends and fans said they like my music, thus the practice continued.” 

This theatre-actor and also a singer now, has spent nine years in the industry. He feels the journey is always more beautiful than the destination. With all its ups and downs, the learning curve for him has been that script is the king; content is the hero, so, making the right choice is paramount. Rest, as an actor, his job is to give 100 per cent to create a character that lives up to the storyline. It is these characters, he says, that live in the hearts of audiences and make place for his ilk.

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