Adarsh Gourav reveals he got ‘reality check’ trying to book a table on Valentine’s Day, says he’s ‘hardly’ famous

Adarsh Gourav’s lead role in Ramin Bahrani’s critically acclaimed The White Tiger earned him worldwide recognition, including nominations in the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) and Film Independent Spirit Awards. In the movie, which also stars Priyanka Chopra and Rajkumar Rao, Adarsh plays a poor villager Balram who gets employed as a rich Indian family’s ambitious driver and goes on to become a successful entrepreneur. The actor was conferred with the Rising Star Award by the Asian World Film Festival for his portrayal of Balram. The film, which was based on Aravind Adiga’s Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name, was also nominated at the Oscars in the best-adapted screenplay category. Also Read: From Adarsh Gourav to Kubbra Sait: Indian actors who shone bright in Hollywood this year

Adarsh, who is also known for his portrayal of Mohit Chadda in the 2017 Hindi thriller film Mom, admits that the success of The White Tiger after its release on Netflix last year has fulfilled a lot of his dreams. However, the actor believes that he is still “hardly” famous, which he found out when he tried to use his fame to pull some strings last year.

Adarsh, who previously revealed that he is dating a graphic designer, recalled that he was trying to book a table for them on Valentine’s Day last year when he got a “reality check” about his fame as not many restauranters recognised him. When asked how famous he has become after his breakout role in The White Tiger, Gourav told Mid-Day, “Oh, hardly. I get a reality check every now and then. I was in Rajasthan last year for Valentine’s Day, and we wanted a table. Every place was booked out. Someone suggested we pull strings.”

He further recalled, “So, I made calls to restaurants, and no one there had even watched the film. Eventually, one place knew me. They gave me a table, but that’s because they weren’t sold out.” Also Read: Adarsh washed dishes, swept floor at a food stall to prep for The White Tiger

On the professional front, Adarsh will next be seen alongside Meryl Streep, David Schwimmer, Kit Harington, and Gemma Chan in Scott Z Burns’ climate change anthology drama series, Extrapolations. The Apple TV Plus show, a series of eight interconnected episodes, will explore the stories of how the changes to the planet will impact love, family, work both on a personal level and at a larger human level.