'When people watch me, they should say this guy has nailed it'

'Once Tere Bin Laden was over, the stardom was over, six months of living the Shah Rukh Khan life was over...'

Pradhuman Singh returns withTere Bin Laden: Dead Or Alive.

When Pradhuman Singh's mother saw the trailer of the firstTere Bin Laden movie, she could not recognise her son.

Six years later, with the second filmTere Bin Laden: Dead Or Aliveready for release, she's very excited.

The young actor plays an Osama Bin Laden lookalike, and looks completely different than what he looks in real life. Yet, he says he completely relates with the character.

He tells Jahnavi Patel/Rediff.com why. 

How different is your character in the second Tere Bin Laden movie?

It isn’t different at all.

My look is completely the same as it was in the first film. We kept it that way because we wanted people to feel that it’s Noora (Pradyuman’s character in Tere Bin Laden), but his character in the second film is called Paddi Singh. His accent is also different in the two films.

He is a folk singer form Punjab, who comes to Mumbai to become a famous singer. Unfortunately, things don’t go right and the people in Mumbai call him a beggar. This is when he meets Manish Paul’s character, Sharma. Sharma tells this guy that he can become a star, not because of his voice but because of his face.

Noora was very content but Paddi is a bitter and frustrated person, as he wanted to become a celebrity.

Plus, he doesn't get famous as an actor, as Sharma had promised him.

Now, all he wants to do is wrap up everything but someone wants him dead and someone else wants him alive.  

Was it easy to play?

Yes. The first part had a certain innocence, the character was very different from what I am in real life. So I had put in a lot of effort. I was isolated for three months -- I was living with a rooster! I used to wear the pathani all day long. I wasn’t supposed to fool around on the sets.

This time, Paddi Singh was more free-flowing, more fun. I liked this character because it’s more me.

What was more challenging this time?

I have co-written the script, so that was challenging.

As an actor, the most challenging part was not to become complacent.

When people watch me (in theatres), they should say this guy has nailed it. I want that. I don’t know whether I’ve done it or not because, honestly, people who have watched the film have neither said that I'm great nor not good.

Director Abhishek Sharma did not push me too much but I wanted to push myself. I wanted to get the comic timing right, the words right, to have the same equation with Manish Paul that I had with Ali Zafar in the first part...