MUMBAI: Ziddi Dil Maane Na actor Aditya Deshmukh is happy to play Faizi in the show, but he didn't originally audition for this character.

"When I was called for this show, I auditioned for Sid's character. Kunal Kapoor is playing this character. So first of all I was a little reluctant playing this role because I couldn't see myself as Sid anyway. But still I gave my audition. I was like okay, 'chalo de diya audition.' I was supposed to do some other show. I already had 3 to 4 shows and I had to choose one of them," he recalled.

Then he got a call from Reema Gupta, the casting director as well as Deepak Mehrotra. "Deepak ji called me from Delhi and Reema, who is part of the internal casting team from Sunshine Productions, called me up. She just briefed me about this army-related show. When they saw my Sid's character, especially Sudhir Sharma, the producer of Ziddi Dil Maane Na, producer of Sunshine production. He saw my audition and he thought at one point he saw that one naive thing in that audition. And that naive thing was something that they were looking for Faizi which they were not getting."

No actor was finalised to play Faizi at the time. "I didn't know who Faizi was, what Faizi was all about. They gave me the script and they just wanted me to audition for it. I gave like 5 to 6 rounds of auditions. The rest is history and I just nailed it. I remember they were testing for Faizi and they have tested more than 100 to 150 people for it. But they were not getting Faizi anyway and I think when I gave the audition, Sudhir Sir himself told me, 'Faizi tere liye likha hai (it was written only for you). And you just nailed it.'"

Working on the show has been an amazing experience for him. "It's a different journey altogether. For an actor playing an army role is always a dream. So whether it's Shah Rukh Khan in Fauji or Ajay Devgn in LOC or Hrithik Roshan in Lakshya, every actor who actually played army characters, their careers touched great heights and I believe that I should do it at least once in my lifetime," he said.

But it's not easy to play a man in uniform. "We started leading the army life. When we had our promo shoot done, we used to get up around 3:30 am for the shoot because the set was very far. We had to leave early to reach there around 5:30 am," he said.

He is enjoying every moment of it.
"Every day we face so many challenges. Like when we just read the script we were like, 'oh wow, this is how it's going to happen.' So everyday is always a challenge for us. The writers, what they wrote and the way they actually present it in front of us, it's always a surprise element for all of us. It is absolutely a different role. It's an army character and Faizuddin Siddiqui has so many shades.

"Basically he has his own charm. He is naive and at the same time he also flirts. Now you can see a different Faizi, who is concerned about Koel. e is like, 'Koel ke saamne woh kuch nahi karpata.' Because he loves her immensely and that's how he's expressing it and still he's expressing his love. So that's how you're going to see it further."

After watching Dark Knight and Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker in it, he realised that he had never seen an actor breaking barriers like that.

"I've never seen an actor going to such heights to live a character like that. So my dream role would be playing the Joker. If given a choice to get a part in Hollywood, I would love to play that character. I would also love to do something like Al Pachino's Scarface, something very different and larger than life character. I want to test myself as an actor," he said.

According to him, the audience is the king. "They make people. They break people. So I always give my complete support to the audience. Whatever they think about us, we try to rectify it, we try to work on it," he said.

Recent shows that he has watched include The good Doctor. "I think I believe that everyone should watch this show. It's an amazing show. People who want to be a doctor should watch it. Story is sold for me and Money Heist and of course the Squid Game," he said.
 
As for inspiration, he shared, "The craft, the fraternity, the industry itself has its own warmth like I really feel that this industry has welcomed us. So what really inspires me is, it inspires me to aspire. So keep going ahead and that's how you become an inspiration for the rest of the world. So what inspires you, you should just forget about it, just keep working on it and I believe that it's the most important thing in your life. Koi chiz aapko inspire karti hai, koi chiz aapko aspire karne ke liye inspire karti hai. I think the craft, the canvas of any project. It inspires me, the story-telling of my current show."

Asked why people should tune into Ziddi Dil Maane Na, he said, "Because it's an army show, a youth-based show and has so many characters. It is a romantic show as well. You'll love it. I have been getting DMs from people asking me when they are going to see Faizi and Koel stories more often. Now is the time when you can actually watch Faizi and Koel's story. That's why you should tune into Ziddi Dil Maane Na. Because of you, we are."