Saurabh Sachdeva has a blunt message for actors who feel stuck in the same kind of roles: look in the mirror before pointing fingers at the industry. The actor and acting coach, currently seen as Maricha in Nitesh Tiwari‘s Ramayana Part 1, told PTI in an interview published on November 8, 2026, that typecasting is less about what the industry does to an actor and more about what the actor allows to happen. His words landed at a time when the debate around repetitive casting in Bollywood is louder than ever, and they carry extra weight because Sachdeva has spent more than two decades on both sides of the camera — as a performer and as the coach who has trained some of the biggest names in Hindi cinema.
The Statement That Started the Conversation
Saurabh Sachdeva did not soften his view. Speaking to PTI, he said actors who complain about being boxed into a certain image are often the ones who put themselves there first.
“If I say I’ve been typecast, then it’s my limitation; then I’m putting myself in a box, and people will see from that box.” — Saurabh Sachdeva to PTI
He expanded on the idea by explaining how he approaches his own negative roles. Audiences may see a villain on screen, but Sachdeva said he sees a full person with problems, struggles, and barriers to cross. Those barriers, he added, need to be strong enough to lift the protagonist’s performance — a philosophy he applied in films like Vadh, where the antagonist has to match the hero beat for beat.
“People can typecast you, but it is the shape that I have to give to the characters. If you see all my negative characters, you might say, ‘Oh, it’s a negative character’, but they are different human beings, different personalities.” — Saurabh Sachdeva to PTI
The comment reframes a familiar industry complaint. Typecasting is usually discussed as something that happens to actors — a failure of casting directors, writers, or producers to imagine them differently. Sachdeva’s argument flips that: the actor is the first gatekeeper of their own range.
Why He Believes the Actor Is Responsible
The logic behind Sachdeva’s statement comes from his own career. He did not start as a leading man. He spent years behind the camera as an acting coach before stepping into acting himself, and he has spoken openly about the self-doubt that delayed his start.
“It was my own incompetence and I was operating from, ‘I’m not enough, I’m small’, I was operating from this thought process. Some of my coaches helped me to rectify that and compete with that and move on.” — Saurabh Sachdeva to PTI
That admission matters because it shows he is not lecturing from a place of untouched success. He has lived through the feeling of being limited — by his own mind, by his circumstances, by the parts he was offered. The lesson he drew from it is that waiting for the industry to change is a losing game. The actor has to change what they bring to the table first.
His filmography backs the argument. The same performer who played the menacing Suleiman Isa in Sacred Games also appeared as Abid Haque in Animal, Ajit Mhatre in Jaane Jaan, Shankar in Dhadak 2, and Prajapati Pandey in Vadh. These are not identical parts. They sit in the same broad zone — intense, morally complicated, often on the wrong side of the law — but Sachdeva has been vocal about treating each one as a separate human being rather than a repeat of the last.
The Coach Who Trained Half of Bollywood
The weight behind Saurabh Sachdeva‘s words comes partly from his day job. Before he became a familiar face on screen, he was — and still is — one of Hindi cinema’s most respected acting teachers. He founded The Actor’s Truth in 2017, after spending 11 years at the Barry John Acting School in Mumbai. Barry John is the same teacher who trained Shah Rukh Khan and Manoj Bajpayee, which places Sachdeva in a direct lineage of Indian acting pedagogy.
The list of actors he has trained is long. It includes Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Varun Dhawan, John Abraham, Bobby Deol, Rana Daggubati, Dulquer Salmaan, Richa Chadha, Triptii Dimri, Arjun Kapoor, Harshvardhan Rane, and Raghav Juyal, among others. When someone with that kind of resume says typecasting is a two-way street, it is not an abstract opinion. It is an observation from someone who has watched actors either break out of their patterns or stay stuck in them.
What Maricha in Ramayana Means for His Own Range
Sachdeva’s current role puts his philosophy to the test. He plays Maricha in Nitesh Tiwari‘s two-part adaptation of the Ramayana, starring Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Ram, Sai Pallavi as Sita, and Yash as Ravana. Ramayana Part 1 released in theatres worldwide on November 5, 2026, in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam. The second part is expected during Diwali 2027.
Maricha is not a simple villain in Sachdeva’s reading. The character is a shape-shifting demon who, in the epic, takes the form of a golden deer to lure Sita away — an act that sets the story’s central conflict in motion. Sachdeva described him as a figure caught between sides.
“I don’t know how much of a villain Maricha is. He is on the villain side, but he is always in a dilemma about where to stand.” — Saurabh Sachdeva to PTI
That interpretation fits the pattern he described in the typecasting interview. Even within the “negative role” bracket, he is looking for the human being who is unsure, conflicted, and not fully committed to the darkness.
Ramayana Faced Criticism; Sachdeva Stood by the Film
Ramayana Part 1 arrived in theatres after a trailer that drew mixed reactions online, with some viewers questioning the visual effects and the casting of Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Ram. Sachdeva addressed the chatter before the release, saying he was not bothered by it and that religious subjects naturally invite strong feelings.
“Here definitely our belief is also connected, religious belief, religious sentiment is there, that is what is a little fragile. Hence, many times people will get up strongly and talk.” — Saurabh Sachdeva to PTI
He added that he had seen portions of the film during dubbing and felt it was “done in a beautiful and right way,” with nothing added purely for spectacle. The film was produced by Namit Malhotra‘s Prime Focus Studios, DNEG, and Yash‘s Monster Mind Creations, with music by Hans Zimmer and A.R. Rahman.
A Career Built on Small Parts and Sharp Choices
The road to Ramayana was not a straight line. Saurabh Sachdeva made his acting debut in 2017 with the film Maroon, but the role that changed his trajectory was Suleiman Isa in the Netflix series Sacred Games. The part had limited screen time, yet it became one of the show’s most talked-about performances.
“I was surprised when Sacred Games came out and that my character became big, despite the screen time being very less.” — Saurabh Sachdeva to PTI
From there came Manmarziyaan, Laal Kaptaan, Vadh, Haddi, Kaala, Jaane Jaan, Animal, Pushpa 2: The Rule, and Satluj. The range is wider than the “villain” label suggests, but the industry’s habit of filing actors into folders is exactly what Sachdeva is pushing against.
The Larger Typecasting Debate in Bollywood
Sachdeva’s comments land in a Hindi film industry that has been arguing about repetitive casting for years. Actors often speak about being offered the same kind of role after a breakout performance — the successful gangster, the comic sidekick, the strict father, the glamorous love interest. Casting directors say the pressure to repeat what has worked is real, because producers want familiar faces in familiar shapes. The result is a loop that can be hard to break, especially for actors who are not yet bankable enough to demand different material.
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His argument does not deny that the industry has patterns. It simply places the first move with the actor. An actor who keeps saying yes to the same part is teaching the industry what to expect. An actor who says no — or who reshapes the part from the inside — changes the conversation. That is a harder position to hold than blaming the system, and it is the one Sachdeva has chosen.
Also Read: Saurabh Sachdeva Unfazed By Ramayana Criticism, Says Film Made The Right Way
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