EXCLUSIVE! “Even if Aishwarya and I didn’t know each other, we would still perform the same way”, says Neil Bhatt

MUMBAI : Neil Bhatt is an Indian television actor known for portraying Ranveer Singh Vaghela in Roop – Mard Ka Naya Swaroop and ACP Virat Chavan in Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Meiin.

Neil studied law but acting and dance have always been his passion. In 2020, Bhatt met actress Aishwarya Sharma on the sets of Ghum Hai Kisikey Pyaar Mein and the couple soon fell in love. They announced their engagement in January 2021 and got married in November 2021 in Ujjain.

The show has been doing really well and is always amongst the top five. The audience loves the track and the chemistry Neil shares with Aishwarya on screen.

Business-credits recently got in touch with the actor and got to know interesting insights.

People love your chemistry with Aishwarya. Since you guys are together off-screen, does that in any way affect or contribute to your on-screen chemistry?

“It is always a good thing when something you are portraying on-screen is reciprocated by the audience. It is a good thing for the show. As far as Aishwarya and I being together off-screen is concerned, it does not really affect or help us on-screen because we are professional actors. The thing is even though I may not know the co-actor, my job as an actor is to portray the kind of emotions that have been written by the writers. So even if Aishwarya and I didn’t know each other, we would still perform the same way. I still have the footage of the mock shoot that Aishwarya and I did. Whenever I go back to that footage, it shows the same depth in Virat and Pakhi that we have today. If actors involved in a scene are serious about their work, what relation or rapport you share off-screen wouldn’t matter. It is always nice to have a good off-screen bonding but it is not directly proportional to what we portray on-screen.”

Now that kids are involved in the track, how are you managing working with them? Is it any difficult?

“Working with these kinds is a blast. Arya and Tanmay both are bright kids and they are so smart for their age. We get pleasantly surprised looking at the smartness these kids portray these days. We can be children but can’t infantilise them. They talk like adults and so well. They are aware of the craft they are involved in. They are so raw and at the same time so refined. I don’t think it is difficult working with them. They are a bunch of smart kids. We are very happy and honoured to share screen space with them. They are well spoken and well behaved. They are extremely cute and I keep playing around with both of them. I call Arya my little monkey because she keeps climbing on my back and always leaning on me. With Tanmay, it is more of riddles and mind games.”

What other types of roles or projects do you wish to explore in the future?

“I haven’t really decided what kind of roles and projects I would like to explore. I hope I get projects which I can justify with my performance. Earlier whenever I used to think about the type of work I wanted, I never got that and always got something different. Then I have to mentally align myself according to it. So I have grown to believe that you accept the projects that are being given to you as an artist and try to mould things according to that rather than trying to mould things according to yourself. So I am open to anything that comes my way, be it web shows, television, ads, music videos. I will try to mold myself and portray the character that is being given to me so that it becomes memorable for the audience. I want to explore myself as an artist so I am open to anything that is challenging.”