Being the warrior prince

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Being the warrior prince

The new-age Arjun, Shaheer Sheikh, spent sleepless nights and worked on his body to be the modern youth icon. He chatted with Divya Kaushik

For someone who could not read Hindi and has not even seen BR Chopra's Mahabharat, it was pretty tough to get into the skin of his character, Arjun. But he didn't give up. Rather he took the role as a challenge, studied it through different sources and lived with the character for almost six months. "After I was offered the role by the producer and given the brief, I started collecting material and my friends helped me a lot as I could not read Hindi. They used to read the text to me and I got to know a lot about his personality through different books. I also had a Hindi teacher. Arjun's personality influenced me so much that even while sleeping I used to think of his qualities and traits that I need to incorporate," shared Shaheer Sheikh, who was not sure whether he wanted to be a part of a mythological serial before signing Mahabharat. "I never plan anything. I studied law in Pune and was working at a law firm when I this offer. I like doing different things so I took it up as a challenge. Similarly, I never thought about mythological serials until I was offered one," he added. Shaheer is in awe of Arjun's character and says that he was a "perfectionist and very emotional person." The actor says that it was relevant for him to portray Arjun as the modern icon. "In mythological serials the actors' body language is very different. Their heads will be high and tone will be different. But I am trying to present myself as a real person. This Mahabharat presents the true picture of characters and I have to be real to connect with the audience," said Shaheer, who was born and brought up in a small village in Kashmir.

He hasn't really decided what after Mahabharat. "I don't think I will continue to act in daily soaps for long. I may switch to direction or do something else altogether," he ended.