One To Watch: Sagar Radia

Actor and City University graduate Sagar Radia, 21, from London began to establish himself on our TV screens by appearing as a patient on the popular BBC1 medical drama Casualty. For those looking for inspiration, Sagar only started his acting career at the age of 16 with his first professional acting role at just 18, which goes to show that whatever age you are, its never to late (or in this case early!) to achieve where you want to go in life.

Taking his first steps into the world of performing arts, Sagar trained at The Harris Drama School in Wembley where he attended evening classes while at the same time studying to complete his A-Levels and then degree in Media and Sociology. Commenting on the Harris drama school he states;

“They looked at acting a whole lot differently to my college class, a more professional outlook - audition techniques, script work and improvisation. College was more Stage Work - different acting techniques, basic terminology and literature”.

Appearing in commercials for Tesco Mobile (2005) and the 2007 Cricket World Cup, Sagar has completed various acting roles such a starring in the major Bollywood film, 'Namastey London', starring alongside Bollywood actors, Akshay Kumar and Rishi Kapoor, which did well in northern parts of India and received good reviews and responses in the UK. Sagar then went on to film 'Britz' in late 2006, which was directed by BAFTA Award winner Peter Kosminsky. 'Britz' takes a controversial look on a family from Bradford living in Britain under the anti-terror legislation. The story focuses on a brother and sister (Sohail and Nasima) who are British born and Muslim, who are both pulled apart or pulled in different directions by their personal experiences after 9/11.

With such a controversial film under his belt, this has given Sagar the platform to further his career and enable him in line take on similar roles in the future.

Speaking on role preparation, when Sagar receives a script, he will read it only once and will not read it again till the next day or even a few days after! At this point you may think ‘He must have been in the acting profession for a couple of years!’, but the young actor believes that if you become too focused on the words, it will ruin any sort of creativity, especially so early on. Also, to get more familiar with a role he has been selected to act, he researches around the topic to improve his on screen performance. Sagar found it slightly difficult to adapt to his role in Casualty as he had to extensively research medical terminology that he had no clue about.

“In medical drama's it’s got to be as authentic as possible as you have to know how to react to certain situations”.

Being 16 and attempting to get into an industry which is very competitive was very much surreal to Sagar. With the UK film industry booming with more popular films, the competition for leading roles is tight. As Sagar started out at a young age, this gives him a big advantage over those who are just starting out in the industry. Keeping a cool head about things, Sagar still keeps in contact with close friends, despite having a somewhat busy schedule!

Sagars roles to date have been dramatic, which really tests his acting and on camera skills. Speaking about how he would like to transcend into doing some comedy roles, he tells The Scene Mag;

“As of right now, I would love to do some comedy. Growing up on 'Harry Enfield & Chums' and 'Only Fools 'n Horses' it makes you want to deliver the way they did! I liked 'Goodness Gracious Me' at the time as well. It showed Asians can be funny and not just money hungry!”

Evidently, comedy acts such as Omid Djalili and Russell Peters are now opening more doors for aspiring Asian comedy acts to walk through. Today, more Asian acts are beginning to show their talent across the UK which means comedy audiences are becoming more receptive to the influx of young new talent from all over the world waiting to grace our screens. Stepping into a comedy role will be a whole new transition for Sagar who has come from roles which are relatively serious and dramatic, comedy involves entertaining the masses which can be a hard task as maintaining the funny guy persona can be fun, but pressurizing at the same time!

Sagar has just recently finished filming a couple of episodes for BBC's top drama ‘Waking the Dead’ which is due to be released in spring. Excited at the fact that he has yet again embarked on another serious role, Sagar has decided to Take a step away from the small screen for a while and try his hand at writing; as he explains;

“I wrote a few small things that I have locked away at home but it’s been a few years since I’ve looked at that! When you see people like Noel Clarke (Kidulthood, Adulthood) it inspires you to write for the youth because the credibility of the stories is now there”

With 'Waking the Dead' ready for spring release, Sagar has the doors wide open for him to pursue other projects. At just 21 years old there is still much ahead for Sagar. His love for acting coupled with his sharp sense of ambition leaves little doubt that Sagar Radia has only just begun to show the world what new talent London has to offer.

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/sagarradia