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Debutant Dev Agasteya made his onscreen debut in the Gen-Z rom-com ‘Nadaaniyan’, which was released on Netflix in February. The film starred Khushi Kapoor and newcomer Ibrahim Ali Khan in lead roles, and Agasteya played the antagonist to the onscreen couple. The film showed a love story between Kapoor and Khan’s characters, set in the backdrop of a high-scale private school.
Dev Agasteya played the character of Ayaan Nanda, a rich teenager in Kapoor’s character’s friend group, whose aim is to split up Khan and Kapoor’s characters.
“I auditioned for the character with only a 1-2 page script, like most auditions, and you’re then meant to create this character in your head, which is what I did. I went in, and thankfully it worked out.”
Playing a negative character, Agasteya felt like he had freedom to take the character beyond the script.
“Because I was the ‘negative guy’, I had the free reins to mess around a little, which was fun – I just enjoyed it. A lot of my friends tell me Ayaan is unrecognizable, because anyone who knows me knows that I’m not that guy, so just getting into his skin, and getting to play around was fun.”
Before becoming an actor, Agasteya started a career in business after getting a degree in Business Management, and worked in a corporate job before making the switch to acting.
“As a kid, I really enjoyed acting, drama, and entertaining people … somewhere along the way, I stopped giving it importance … when Covid came around, I went back to drawing board to reconsider my life, and acting was something I always had in the back of my mind – as something that I would not only really enjoy doing but perhaps something I could be good at.”
Agasteya started his acting career on the sets of Raj & DK’s series ‘Farzi’ as an intern, following which he started doing acting and dancing workshops to get his foot in the door of the Hindi film industry.
“Around maybe 50-60 auditions later, I landed the role in ‘Nadaaniyan’. Regardless of how the film might have been received, those days on set, more than anything, gave me the clarity that this is what I love doing, this is for me. And that conviction for me is priceless.”
Being an outsider to the industry, when Agasteya walked onto the Dharma productions set, it felt surreal.
“I remember moments I was in a scene, and in between takes, I would look around and see 100-200 other actors, this whole elaborate set up, icons like Suniel Shetty and Dia Mirza, and I would literally take a breath to soak it all in. I felt like I had to pinch myself.”
Although ‘Nadaaniyan’ didn’t get the commercial or critical reception that those in the film had hoped for, Agasteya emphasized how grateful he was for the opportunity.
“I’m still young, and I’m at the point in my life where I want to work – I know that it could take five or six failures to have one success, so I’m ready to just go out there and work. If it means I fail, then I fail. But what you can be sure of is that I will only learn and get better.”
Agasteya is currently working on a few auditions for upcoming projects, and we can’t wait to see the work he does next!
