Sahil Phull to star in Australian film `Shabd`

Melbourne: Jammu born Sahil Phull might be a struggling actor in Bollywood but his zest for acting has impressed Australian film producers and now he has got few projects in line including a feature film.

Phull is on his second visit to Down Under to shoot his latest project, Australian short film ‘Shabd’, which is set to be a part of Tropfest Film Festival this year. ‘Shabd’ centres around a 20 something Indian guy of the same name, played by Phull, living and working in Melbourne and gives a glimpse into his life as he tries to balance two very different cultures. "My first project was `Moti Gori` which was a TV series for an Australian channel. It was again an East-meets-West clash of cultures based story," Phull said. ‘Moti Gori’ was shot in India and according to its Australian creator cum producer Jasen O Leary, the project was a creation that brought together love of television, comedy and film with the exuberance of Bollywood. Episodes of ‘Moti Gori’ also had Bollywood styled song and dance number incorporated in it. Phull now has a feature film which is based on an Indian Australian life here. His exposure to Australian film industry has certainly honed his acting skills but Pull said he is still looking for a break in Bollywood. The 25-year-old Phull has been pursuing acting career for the last two years and has worked with various leading film personalities in the past including Naseeruddin Shah. Phull said his luck started to change few month ago when he was in Melbourne to attend the screening of ‘Moti Gori’ where he got picked up for ‘Shabd’ by a reputed Australian film director Tony Nikolapoulos. And then came a feature film offer which is the most recent one during his shoot for `Shabd`. "I was picked up through the audition to play a major role in Indo-Aussie feature film. The people involved in this are Colin Budds, Julie Marlows and Tony Nikolakopoulos," he said. The engineering graduate said acting is his passion but he is open to other areas of films including direction. PTI