'I thank Raima Sen'

Sammir Dattani is the hero of Mukhbiir, a spy-thriller that will hit the screens now. Belonging to a Gujarati family steeped in the textile business, Sammir nurtured dreams of veering away from the family trade to become an actor. He started out with commercials and music videos and films were just a natural progression. His career began as hero in a Kannada film called Nanna Preethiya Hudugi (My Favourite Girl) when he was only 19, still in college and doing lots of commercials and music videos. On the eve of his big-time release, he lets himself go…

Is Mukhbiir your debut as hero in Bollywood?

Not really. My debut was in a Rajshri Productions film Uuf Kya Jaadoo Mohabbat Hai, a musical family entertainer. But I was already riding on cloud nine because my first Kannada film was a silver jubilee hit and also fetched me the best debut award in the south. The Rajshri debut was just another feather in my cap. The film did average business but my role was liked by those who saw the film.

Aren't you flattered by the fact that though Mukhbiir boasts of a very impressive star cast your name crops up whenever the film is mentioned?

I'm more surprised than anyone else. But then, I let logic take priority over emotions and looking back, I feel that the media's attention is on me because the film revolves almost totally around the character I play, that of an informer who works for the Indian intelligence agency. It is about the many masks he wears – enacting a desperate drama where forgetting the lines means instant death. This is the story of the many lives he has to live and the many deaths he has to die because information is vital. I look at my work in the film as the greatest learning experience I could have imagined as a comparative newcomer to Bollywood. The presence of so many stalwarts within the same frame was overwhelming and humbling at the same time.

Next page: Sammir on Raima Sen