Jaideep Ahlawat on dancing, ‘fighting a lot’ with Saif Ali Khan in ‘Jewel Thief’ and his favourite heist movie

Jaideep Ahlawat's viral dance moves in Jewel Thief break the internet, showcasing his unexpected talent and popularity.

Jaideep Ahlawat is drinking up the response to his velvety dance moves in Jewel Thief. The 45-year-old actor, typically known for playing hard-bitten cops and gangsters, or gentle brooders in films like Three of Us, cut a rug alongside Saif Ali Khan and Nikita Dutta in the groovily retro ‘Jaadu’ that broke the internet.

“The day it happened, the display of my phone malfunctioned,” Jaideep told The Hindu in an interview. “By the time the phone returned from the service centre, the clips had blown up. I had close to 1,000 messages on Instagram.”

The song currently has over 9 million views on YouTube. A majority of the comments are about Jaideep. There are ‘dancing Jaideep’ reels, and silly claims of AI use. “It feels great to be popularly validated like that,” says the Paatal Lok actor who was trained by choreographers Piyush Bhagat and Shazia Samji for the song.

Jaideep hails from Rohtak, Haryana. While his clips from ‘Jaadu’ have reached far and wide, his fans back home aren’t as gobsmacked, he says. “They already know I can dance,” nods the 6-f-tall actor who spent his younger days dancing at local weddings. “For them, it’s more like.... finally!”

This is a common enough experience for Jaideep: fans and admirers encountering him in person and getting pleasantly surprised. “They expect to meet Hathiram or Jadunath Maharaj or Naren Vyas. A lady, who had only seen Jaane Jaan, once remarked upon meeting me, ‘Oh, you have hair!’”

Another curious fan wanted him to remove his sunglasses to verify his eye colour. “He thought I’ll have scary pupil-less eyes like my character in Commando: A One Man Army.”

Jaideep says he does not know what ‘zaddy’—popular youth slang for an attractive older man—means. Explained, he deadpans, “Ah, it basically means I am old.”