Sunny Kaushal Interview: “Struggle That You Face Keeps Shifting Day By Day”

Sunny Kaushal is trying to make his mark not only in films but webseries also. After receiving good response for his acting abilities in such films as Gold (2018) and Bhangra Paa Le (2020), Sunny Kaushal made his digital debut with the recently premiered Amazon Prime Video webseries The Forgotten Army – Azaadi Ke Liye.

Directed by well-known Bollywood filmmaker Kabir Khan, the series is based on true events about the men and women in the Indian National Army (INA) led by Subhash Chandra Bose. Besides Sunny Kaushal, it also features Sharvari Wagh, Rajvir Chauhan and TJ Bhanu, among others. The Forgotten Army – Azaadi Ke Liye premiered on 24^th January on Amazon Prime Video and garnered positive response from critics and viewers.

Recently, STARBIZ caught up with Sunny Kaushal and tried to know more from him about his role in The Forgotten Army – Azaadi Ke Liye, how did he bag the part, what was the most challenging part of doing a show based on real events, and what the series taught him and, of course, much more.

How did The Forgotten Army - Azaadi Ke Liye happen?

I was in Patiala shooting for Gold, and (casting director) Mukesh Chhabra called me up and said that there was a project. I told him that we would do it once I came back and we just did it. I gave the audition with the same look as that of Gold, with long tresses. The best part was that when we were auditioning with Kabir Khan, Sharvari, Rohit, Bhanu and I were all together, and we all got to do those roles.

What was the most challenging part about the audition and the show?

I think Kabir Khan knew that without knowing the characters and the proper history one will not be able to pull it off. So, I think, he kept that away during our auditions. In the audition, he just judged our characters, how we are, our attitude and whether we are good actors or not, because there was a sea of a difference in what we performed in the audition and what we had to do in actual. We had no idea about it or the characters that we were going to portray.

When you give an audition, you get a sketch slightly about the character and then you go in depth. Then after audition, when we got selected, we realised, “Okay, this is another level and we have to go into the depth to portray this.” So, I think he knew that already and he was not very sure that this is the only character that I would play.

What was the biggest challenge that you guys faced on the sets?

There was this portion where we were supposed to shoot in torrential rains where Azad Hind Fauj got stuck. On the first day, I felt that it will be very uncomfortable. Then from second day onwards we were very easy about it. There were heavy rains and we were there for about 10 days and it was mushy all around and you couldn’t even sit peacefully under a tree. You are wet the whole day so that was a bit comfortable but not difficult. It was uncomfortable for the first day but then we got used to it.

What did the show teach you?

First, we cannot come even close to what they went through by portraying them. I don’t think we will be able to portray what had happened. The second thing is that yes, it taught us a lot. The first thing is that it is such an important part in the history that we did not know about it. We should be grateful not just to them but many other people who laid their lives here. It was just a very fresh reminder of how granted we are taking our freedom for. So that’s what I would take.

There is a lot of competition when it comes to actors. What do you think is the biggest challenge that actors are facing today?

I think its subjective. I think the most basic struggle is just getting work. It’s the most basic struggle and that is where everything starts and everything finishes, right? And after you get work, it is training, it is continuing to do work. When you get work, it is continuing to do good work. I think the struggle that you face keeps shifting day by day according to where you stand every day.

I think you should always be very self-aware, you know, as a part of your struggle. That will help a person where you stand and not cheat yourself. If you need to work on yourself, you need to work on yourself because you cannot lie to yourself. So, I think that is the very important part of the struggle of how you are with yourself and how much you struggle, the intensity, what you do will keep changing every day. And most important thing is getting work and not cheating yourself.

This web series has a lot of action sequences. Did you get any tips from your father who is a legendary action choreographer?

I did get everything from him because he is the action director of the series so fortunate enough. It was a dream come true moments because have heard a lot about him whenever we used to go anywhere along with dad , everybody used to be like oh he is this amazing technician and we used to be like “yeah, he would have been” but on the first day when I saw my dad, I was like you don’t stand anywhere. And it was very inspiring to watch him and he used to show us do action in this way and use these guns and he is very vocal and very expressive when he tries to tell you what to do and it was just aspiring to watch him do that and I want to learn so much and I am thankful that first day I realized that I love doing action. And it’s just so insulting to know that you don’t like action, but I loved doing action.