Namaste England’s Aditya Seal wants Tiger vs him, calls KJo Mukesh Ambani of B-Town

Aditya Seal, most remembered for Tum Bin 2, is all set to surprise with his role in Namaste England, and has grown as an actor post bagging Student Of The Year 2 with Tiger Shroff. A friend of Tiger even before the handsome actor joined the industry, Aditya even went on to speak about his first meetings with Shraddha Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, Karan Johar and of course, Will Smith!

The actor also went on to speak about his injury, living with it and yet that not stopping him from achieving his dreams, as he also revealed some fun facts in his exclusive interview with Deccan Chronicle.

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

You seem to be the surprise factor in Namaste England. Is it true?

Yeah, I actually am the surprise factor, which is why I’ve been kept under wraps. There’s been a discussion with my production team, and it was a conscious decision because my entry would be like a shock and surprise in the film.

Describe your character…

His name is Sam, born and brought up in London. He’s a rich spoilt brat and a Casanova. He has a lot of girlfriends and lives life really large. He lives with his grandfather who he really loves. It’s about how he changes things around and how things around him change eventually.

Do you have a scene with both the actors in the same frame?

Yeah, of course.

How has life been after Tum Bin 2? People know you since then…

Correct. We did all we could when we were making Tum Bin 2. It somehow didn’t connect with the audience and demonetization affected the film further. But it was you guys (media) who actually supported me by saying that I’ve done a good job. So the film’s fate didn’t really bow me down. Life has actually been pretty good. Namaste England also came to me. I didn’t look for it or even audition for the film. A similar thing happened with Student Of The Year 2. It wasn’t that difficult for me, even though I had to go through some round of auditions. They trusted my work because they had heard about it a lot. It became nice since people started knowing me and took me seriously. That feels good.

With Tum Bin 2, Namaste England and Student Of The Year 2, you seem to become the hero of sequels…

Well, yes. I figured this 2 days ago and it’s like directors love me for sequels.

In females too, Shraddha Kapoor has got that tag. Have you met her?

Of course! I met her on the sets of Batti Gul, when they were shooting the final schedule. A friend of mine was working on the film. When I met Shraddha, we all were chatting constantly. She’s so much fun and easy as a person. When she came, she went like ‘Oh my god it’s so hot man I’m not feeling well and I ate too much’. That’s how the ice broke, and then it was easy to communicate.

You knew about Will Smith coming on SOTY 2 sets even before everybody else. How tough was it to keep that secret?

I got to know 2-3 days before he came in! Somebody accidentally informed me, and hearing Will Smith’s name, I cried because I love that guy for the person he is, not just as an actor! Then I became a part of a very secret society because there were only 3 people on set who knew about this, and it was no other actor than me. And I didn’t even want anyone else to know about it by spilling it over. I was privileged and honoured to know this information. It was so difficult to hide it, so I called up a very dear friend of mine and ranted to her for the next half an hour. As opposed to the impression I had about him, he came on set and hi-fived everyone, right from spotboys to junior artist, dancers and actors. I’m not usually a star-struck person but because of Will Smith, I really tried to make small talk to him and succeeded till an extent since we shared a few laughs.

You wanted to be a cricketer. So is there any scope or wish that you pursue it now?

No, no chance. I still play decently. I used to be the vice-captain of my team. I still have this injury below my left knee, which was the reason I had to give up on the sport. I still follow it religiously though.

Then with the injury, how would you perform action stunts?

I can’t put my knee on the ground, so I work around that. I’ve lived with the injury for 18 years now! Even when we were filming action sequences for Student Of The Year, we were good enough and actually managed to do it since Tiger too was supportive.

But then what about an out-and-out action film?

I’ve been doing martial arts since a long time. I’ve represented India at International events. So I think I can take that pain right now. In fact me and Tiger trained together for martial arts which is how I know him even before Heropanti came out. So since we know each other’s pluses and minuses, we were going all out while performing. We were actually kicking and punching each other. That really hurts. My forearms were swollen a day after. There was a time when we were patting each other’s backs.

Considering this, would you want Tiger in an action movie with you?

Yeah, yeah, yeah! I love that guy, but I want to kill him! I love him to death because he’s a fabulous guy, but I want to kill him because he pushes you like nobody else can! It so happened that after the long day of getting bruises on you, when you just want to crash on your couch, Tiger comes in and says ‘Chal bhai abhi training karte hai’ and I used to go like ‘Arre yaar’ but couldn’t refuse him out of guilt.

Stepping into Varun and Sidharth’s shoes, how does that feel?

Those are big shoes to fill in! Right now, we’re just having a lot of fun on sets and are confident in our own space and mostly trust our director enough. The songs and girls are so good! They’re both new girls but proving why they’re part of Student Of The Year.

Have you met the original students?

I met Alia, since Akanksha Ranjan is a really dear friend of mine. It was at Akanksha’s birthday party where I met Alia. We were early and had a hearty, long chat. I even met Varun at Bhumi Pednekar’s birthday party. We have common trainers in martial arts and gymnastics. I haven’t met Sidharth and would love to meet him.

How does it feel being backed by Karan Johar himself?

Karan Johar could be the Mukesh Ambani of film industry. He’s at the top! When you think about that, you always feel whether you’ll be able to meet Karan Johar because people dream to work in his films and my dream came true. The first time I met him it didn’t feel like I was meeting THE Karan Johar because he makes you feel at home. When I met him in his office, it was supposed to be 10 minutes of meeting, but ended up being an hour chat, that too with coffee! He was asking me about my life and I was getting to know him as Karan Johar the person. It felt like Karan Johar and I are good friends because I just messaged him regarding some work and he’s ready to help me out and asked me not to worry about it, he’s that hands-on!

Now that you’ve worked with Dharma, is working with YRF also on your list?

Yes, of course! Why wouldn’t I love to work with a big brand?

Will it be a romantic or an unconventional movie with YRF?

Absolutely a romantic film!