Actor Sahil Vaid is truly the perfect blend of the north and the south. A Punjabi born in Salem, Tamil Nadu, who learnt Tamil first before he could get into the nitty gritty of his mother tongue Punjabi.
As an actor, Sahil Vaid has now come into his own after spending over 17 years in showbiz. It was his character as the Tamil-speaking Punjabi SP-CBI Amit Verma originally from Delhi who is a key part of the Special Investigative Team (SIT) put together to probe the assassination of Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in SonyLIV's critically acclaimed series The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case.
Sahil Vaid's Amit Verma is an asset to the team because he's an IPS of the Tamil Nadu cadre who is fluent in Tamil and gorges on saapad almost as voraciously as the other Tamil person in the room.
In an exclusive interview with NDTV, the 38-year-old actor said his role in The Hunt was a perfect fit for him.
"Tamil was the first language that I heard. I was delivered by a Tamil nurse. I was probably monitored by a Tamil doctor. I was born in Salem, Tamil Nadu. I went to school in Salem. I studied there till Class 5 and there I studied mathematics and English in Tamil.
"A Tamil woman taught me Hindi there. My first teacher was a Tamil woman. We used to call her Indira Miss," said Sahil Vaid, popular for roles in films such as Dil Bechara and franchises such as Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania and Badrinath Ki Dulhania.
Tamil Nadu is "pretty much home" for the actor, he said, adding he got a "culture shock" when he moved to Delhi.
"It took me a while to kind of get used to Hindi. And, then I started doing Prithvi Theatre (Mumbai) in 1997, so my whole point of learning new languages was fitting. I have done a short film in Gujarati, Marathi, and Spanish. I love doing projects in different languages. I have done dubbing in Arabic. So I have become quite a language guy," he quipped.
Sahil Vaid has done accents all his life. He played a Bihari boy in Dil Bechara and a young man from Jhansi in Badrinath Ki Dulhania.
After he got an opportunity to star in The Hunt, the actor said he felt that he finally belonged somewhere.
"I'm an actor. My job is to be able to speak (languages) as if I'm from that region. Me being from different places opened me up to different cultures. When I was a child, I always complained that I never fit in anywhere.
"But for the first time in my life I got a role in The Hunt, which was quite literally tailor made for me. They were looking for a Punjabi guy from Delhi who spoke fluent Tamil... That's the beauty of our country. For me, it was an opportunity to show that actors can act in different languages. Language is no barrier. Art has no barrier."
But being well versed with Tamil didn't mean that Sahil Vaid didn't do any homework for his character. He was ably supported by Raja, the Tamil dialect coach on the set of The Hunt.
"Raja was helping us with our diction. Although he was impressed, he was also quite taken aback watching a North Indian like me speak fluent Tamil," he quipped.
There was also a discussion with The Hunt director Nagesh Kukunoor about whether Sahil Vaid should speak Tamil in a North Indian accent.
"I said, 'Hey, you know what? He grew up in Tamil Nadu. He's someone who's from the Tamil Nadu cadre as an IPS. He's talking about eating South Indian food with so much love, he will never speak Tamil in a North Indian accent. In fact, he should be the guy when he speaks Tamil, he should sound like he's from Tamil Nadu. And, when he speaks Hindi, he should sound like he's from North India'. And everybody agreed. It's absolutely possible that people like this exist. They're not aliens."
Also alluding the constant language row, the actor said one should look at languages as a medium to unite people.
"We need to start thinking of our country as one unit, and all these language wars that are going on, they are actually of no use. We should be able to speak all languages. That's the best part about our country, isn't it?"
Going forward, Sahil Vaid would love to work in the South. He already made a foray when he spoke Tamil in Sriram Raghavan's 2024 mystery thriller Merry Christmas in which he played Katrina Kaif's date.
"I was this actor in the first scene (of Merry Christmas). That was my first attempt at acting in Tamil. I'd like to work in the South with everyone. There is Mr. Shankar, Mr. Gautam Vasudev Menon. I've grown up watching R Madhavan. Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth are people I really want to work with," he added.
The actor will next be seen in a Punjabi film.
Also Read | The Hunt The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case Review: An Engaging, Taut Period Thriller
