Aadil Jaipuri, who started acting at age three and went on to appear in films like Laawaris and Hadh and shows like Zindagi Teri Meri Kahaani and Ssshh Koi Hai, made a comeback with the short film Pind Daan. He named the person who has been the most inspirational teacher in his life.
“Most inspirational teacher in my life, easy answer, it’s Saurabh Sachdeva sir,” he said. He then went back to Saurabh’s early years, long before he found success. “Before he was the guy terrifying audiences in Sacred Games, Animal, and Pushpa 2, before he trained half of Bollywood, Varun Dhawan, Anushka Sharma, John Abraham, Richa Chadha, Frieda Pinto, he was a dyslexic kid in Delhi getting bullied and written off as lazy by teachers who never bothered to understand why he was struggling,” he said.
Aadil went on to describe how Saurabh found his way into acting in the first place. “He walked into acting almost by accident, joined Barry John’s institute in his twenties trying to win back an ex girlfriend, and ended up finding the one place his mind actually worked in his favour. Reading lines was hard. Feeling people, understanding emotion, that came naturally. He built his whole craft on it,” he said.
He then spoke about the years Saurabh spent teaching before he got his own recognition as an actor. “Then he spent over a decade teaching before he ever got his own spotlight. Eleven plus years at Barry John’s, then his own school, The Actor’s Truth, in 2017,” he said. “His real breakout as an actor didn’t come till Sacred Games in 2018, when he was already forty. By then he’d quietly trained close to two thousand students and never once made it about himself,” he added.
Aadil then explained what he believes is at the core of Saurabh’s teaching. “What he actually teaches isn’t technique, it’s permission to be honest in front of people without flinching. His whole philosophy is there’s no overacting or underacting, only honest acting, and he lived that long before he taught it to us,” he said.
He also shared why this story stays with him. “When I think of a real teacher, it’s not some legend I’ve never met. It’s a man who turned his biggest wound into his sharpest gift, spent fifteen years building other people’s careers before his own, and is only now getting his due. That’s the kind of success worth learning from,” Aadil ADDED.
