Exclusive: Kaatelal & Sons actor Sahil Phull – I did films after gaining popularity with Uttaran but they never released

Sahil Phull, who plays the role of Agni in Kaatelal & Sons, spoke about joining the show midway, his bond with co-star Megha Chakraborty and more. In an exclusive chat with ETimes TV, Sahil shared his struggles, how he switched from TV to films to back to TV and feels proud of where he is now.

The kind of love and support we are getting it has been great. My character Agni is very different from what I have played earlier. This character is so important and close to my heart now that I have become Agni, I think like him. Best part is people like it. Fans pick up every dialogue and create a meme or an edit out of it. That’s incredible.

Yes, totally. I was scared before. When you join a show midway, there’s already a fan base. Before I joined, there was Ankit Mohan and he was liked too. He is a great actor but had to leave the show. Then my character Agni was introduced. I was bit skeptical. I was not sure whether I should or should not join the show. But I am so happy that I took this chance and risk. People now know me as Agni.

Megha and I are very good friends. We are definitely on-screen couple and off-screen we are BFFs. Whenever we have any problem, we share it with each other and we live very close by. Off-screen we are not a couple. We are like best buddies. We are not like couple types. We are each other’s cheer leaders. Fans love us. And we like. Just from the first episode, the response I got has been overwhelming, astonishing and incredible for me.

My journey has taught me a lot. I have had so much of failures. But I never gave up. I know where I belong and I get going. In 2014, I got my first lead in Uttaran. After that, I was like ‘TV nahin karna hai’. I wanted to do films and those films never released. Then I got Piya Rangrezz as parallel lead. I have gone through long failures. But my hardwork has paid off and I have a long way to go.

As an actor, you will never know when you will get work. You have to fight within yourself and learn from your mistakes. First I used to believe in luck, but it is sheer hardwork and positive mind. I never felt pressurized from family but I have faced family-peer pressure. When you see your cousins, who are younger than you in a position, where you have never been… you have to go through that pressure. But you have to persistent. The obstacles were you don’t know when things would work out. You would stay frustrated and irritated. There are financial restraints too. In Mumbai, it is expensive and you need to have a lot of courage to live here. I always knew that I won’t play side roles and will take up only lead roles. I am not demeaning any characters but that was my thing. Sometimes I did take up roles for money and sometimes I refused.

2020 lockdown was a turning point in my life. There was nothing to do and it was the best time to know yourself. I went to Jammu to spend time with my family. It’s been 12 years in Mumbai as I did engineering from here. In 12 years I never got to spend so much time with family. But 8-9 months at home was a very long time. I got back to my roots. I felt where I belong and I refreshed myself and it worked a lot.

Bachpan me Kuch Kuch Hota Hai dekh ke I decided I wanted to become an actor. I would imagine myself in Shah Rukh Khan’s place. I never thought I would end up in Mumbai and gave up entrance exams in all cities and got selected in Mumbai. My college was in Juhu, the hub of the industry. So I saw this as a calling. I feel very proud of myself because I have worked hard. On TV you see me as Agni and to reach here it has taken me 6 years. I thank my struggles as I am who I am because of those setbacks.

It was a fascinating experience. I had 3-days schedule and I was fascinated to see John Abraham. Varun Dhawan’s brother was the director and we had a lot of masti. We discussed football as John sir loves football. I would like to experience again. I got so much popularity after Uttaran, I did want to do films but they didn’t release. I did a cameo in ‘Dhishoom’ because it was mullti-star cast. TV is watched by a larger audience. When films didn’t see the light of the day, I thought it is better to switch back to TV. I didn’t get much work in films so I came back.