Adarsh Gourav scores Best Actor nomination at BAFTA Awards 2021 for The White Tiger

By: Mohnish Singh

Indian actor Adarsh Gourav has bagged the leading actor BAFTA nomination for his breakout performance in Netflix’s film The White Tiger (2021), the British Academy announced on Tuesday.

Based on Aravind Adiga's Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name, The White Tiger sees Gourav in the role of a small-town young man who is desperate to change his fortunes and, fighting against all odds, goes on to become a successful entrepreneur. It marks his first lead role. The actor had previously played brief roles in My Name is Khan (2010), Mom (2017), and Netflix series Leila (2019).

Reacting to his nomination, Gourav said, “This is unbelievable. It is surreal. I was at the gym. I saw my phone and there were a lot of messages on The White Tiger WhatsApp group and Pooja Gupte, the DOP, called me. This is so unexpected and overwhelming.”

The White Tiger, also starring Priyanka Chopra and Rajkummar Rao in important roles, is a Ramin Bahrani directorial. Bahrani has also received a nomination in the adapted screenplay category.

Gourav will compete against award season favourites Riz Ahmed for Sound Of Metal (2019) and late Chadwick Boseman for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) and Mads Mikkelsen for the Danish language film Another Round (2020). Veteran British actor Anthony Hopkins and French actor Tahar Rahim are also nominated in the leading actor category.

Previously, Suraj Sharma was nominated in the Rising Star Award category at the BAFTA in 2013 for Ang Lee's acclaimed film Life of Pi (2012). Indian origin British actor Dev Patel won the BAFTA award in the best supporting actor category for Lion in 2017.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony without a live audience on 11 April, 2021.