Meet Jaideep Ahlawat, the disillusioned cop of crime thriller Paatal Lok

After a decade of waiting in the wings, actor Jaideep Ahlawat is making waves with his first lead performance as a disillusioned cop in Paatal Lok, writes Ranjita Ganesan

Jaideep Ahlawat does not believe in picking up the script on set. “That is supposed to be homework,” says the actor. He reads the text over and over again beforehand, sometimes from night to morning, until it becomes familiar, word for word. This preparatory labour is imperative because “if you are not relaxed on the day of the shoot, you will go wrong”.

It took 10 years but the meticulous actor who had so far made an impression in smaller roles — for instance, as the dacoit Shahid Khan in Gangs of Wasseypur, or as Khalid Mir in Raazi —