In the 14 years since his Bollywood debut, actor Saqib Saleem has already got a wide variety of roles to his name, but his performance in the streaming show Crime Beat could rank among his best yet.
As the name says it, Crime Beat, being aired on Zee5, takes viewers into the cloak-and-dagger world of investigative journalism — this is a world where the journalists are almost as much of detectives as the official law enforcement, and these crime journalists are often more at personal risk than police officers.
Asked how he prepared for the role, Saqib Saleem says that he dived into the script more than any other source. “Everything is between the lines [in the script],” he tells Connected to India.
There is no specific inspiration for Saqib’s character of a rookie reporter, but, he says, “when you see this character, you’ll be able to relate to him and be like, ‘Arre, maine dekha hai aisa banda (Hey, I have seen someone like him).’”
Speaking of what the show’s director, the famed Sudhir Mishra, got out of his performance, Saqib says, “I spent a lot of time with Sudhir bhai, who really opened my mind and pushed me to give a different performance.”
Saqib adds about the veteran National Award-winner director, “Been a huge fan before working with him; and [an even] bigger fan after working with him.”
About co-director Sanjeev Kaul, the actor says, “Crime Beat is just going to be the beginning of a lot of exciting things for him. He is the guy to watch out for.”
In Crime Beat, the actor is also reunited with his debut film (Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge, 2011) co-star Saba Azad. He says it felt as if no time had passed between them — “It felt like, ‘Arre, abhi toh Fraaandship khatam hui, aur ab doosra project chalu ho raha hai. (Hey, it’s as if the Fraaandship movie has just ended, and our next project has started),’” says Saqib.
Watch the full conversation with Saqib Saleem on the YouTube channel of Connected to India.
