-‘Munjya’ and ‘Operation Safed Sagar’ star Abhay Verma says he does not want to confine himself to a particular image, which is why he is consciously seeking roles that allow him to reinvent himself.

Verma has been lauded for his nuanced performance of flying officer Rajpal Singh Dhaliwal, nicknamed Dhali, in ‘Operation Safed Sagar’ (on Netflix), according to a PTI report Mumbai yesterday.

“I’ve made a conscious choice to not get boxed as an actor. I started off my journey playing a transgender role (in ‘Safed’). Then I went on to do ‘Family Man’, in which I played a sleeper cell operative. ‘Munjya’ as a horror-comedy was completely different,” the actor told PTI in an interview.

“I want to reinvent with every character. Now, people want to be surprised,” he said and expressed his gratitude to casting directors like Mukesh Chhabra.

“Thankfully, people said, ‘Oh, is that the guy in ‘Munjya’?… I believe, you get what you seek. I was seeking different roles and characters and I got them,” he added.

‘Operation Safed Sagar’ chronicles the Indian Air Force’s Golden Arrows Squadron during the 1999 Kargil War, highlighting the extreme challenge of high-altitude combat without crossing the Line of Control.

“Dhaliwal sir was one of the best pilots that we had and we lost him sadly in 2009. When we were shooting at the air force stations, his courage, pride, and flamboyance that he carried was spoken about. So, I took a lot from that,” he said.

“I would be extremely proud of ‘Operation Safed Sagar’ throughout my life and the things that I got with it. I’m a better person now.

“After playing Dhaliwal sir, it makes me proud of the country that I live in,” Verma aptly summed it all up.