Manish Wadhwa: My life has changed after Pathaan and Gadar 2, the two biggest hits of 2023
Actor Manish Wadhwa talks about the how his life has changed after playing the role of Pakistan Army General in blockbusters Pathaan and Gadar 2 in 2023.
Actor Manish Wadhwa is extremely grateful for how 2023 has turned out for him in terms of his career. After starting the year with a blockbuster like Pathaan, the actor is now basking in the glory of the unprecedented success of Gadar 2, which is currently running in theatres. “It’s God’s blessings and audience’s love. Life seems to have changed now, especially career-wise. I consider myself extremely fortunate that I could be a part of two of the biggest hits of this year. I’m getting so many calls from everywhere,” says an excited Wadhwa.
Interestingly, the actor played the role of a Pakistani Army General in both the films. However, he asserts that it was rather challenging to portray similar characters yet showing them in a different way.
“If you see, both the characters are more or less the same, hatred for India is similar, and even their uniforms is alike, because of the Pakistani background. But, the era was different,” he says, and explains, “General Hamiq Iqbal in Gadar 2 is from 1971 era... he’s very desi with a different thinking. Whereas, General Qadir in Pathaan was very polished and belonged to the modern 2023 era. So, while Manish Wadhwa is the same, I had to think how these two characters would think and behave differently.”
Having played similar parts, the The 51-year-old admits that it’s “natural for audiences and filmmakers to judge that I was stereotyped, but I’d like to think otherwise”. Asked if he has been getting offers to play the antagonist in his future projects, too, and the actor states, “No, that’s not really the case. I’ve received some scripts, but I haven’t had the time to read them yet. I am just enjoying the success of Gadar 2, and I don’t want to get distracted, neither do I want to distract my audience right now.”
Another thing that the actor says really helped his characters leave an impact on audience’s mind is that he completely surrendered to his directors — Siddharth Anand (Pathaan) and Anil Sharma (Gadar 2). “Also, the writing was so nunanced that you just had to be there and understand what the directors wanted from me. I believe, a an artiste, if you go on set with a blank slate, then you can write anything on that slate. Agar main pehle se soch ke jaunga, toh woh sahi nahi hai,” elaborates the actor, revealing that he was also signed for Takht, “But after the film got shelved, I was called for Pathaan by the casting team”.
As for Gadar 2, Wadhwa recalls that he was selected in the first meeting itself. “I had done a Tamil movie called Sham Singha Roy, and its stunt director Ravi Verma showed the clips to Anil Sharma ji, as he was searching for a villain for Gadar 2. Anil ji liked it and selected me in the first meeting. I was asked to meet Sunny (Deol) paaji, because he was very keen about the villain’s role, as had been looking for six months for someone to play that role. And that’s how I came on board,” he wraps up.