Neil is a geeky & nerdy couch potato in PLAYERS

Time and again one hears of an individual going bananas. However when it came toNeil Nitin Mukesh, he turned into a potato. Well, literally so when he had to play a part in PLAYERS which was akin to turning into a couch potato. Since he plays a computer geek called Spider in the film, he was required to put on weight so that he could make his character believable.

''He had to shed his 'hero' image for PLAYERS since he is closest to all the gadgets in the film. When Abbas-Mustan suggested that he goes through a look change for the film, he didn't blink an eyelid and put on over 5 kgs on himself. Of course he was conscious about what he was doing since there were other films in the pipeline too but then he was confident that once the shoot would be through, he would shed all excess baggage through some intensive work out,'' says Neil's friend.While he was quite comfortable about approaching the role since he is a gadget freak himself, there was some good thought that went into getting the appearance right.


Says Neil, ''See, Spider is not about body and look, it is about being tough and sharp while being cool. As a computer hacker who is a nerd, I had to play cool but be believable. I too understood that if a guy is constantly on computer and eating junk food, he would be slightly like a couch potato. So I was this geeky and nerdy young man who had to come across as a nice-n-cute person.''

This means that while Abhishek Bachchan, Bobby Deol and Sikander Kher went ahead with their mean act on the field, behind the scenes it's a rounded up Neil who sets the stage up for the gold heist. Laughs Neil, ''Still, weight or no weight, I promise one thing that I won't let audience down as far as Spider is concerned. I will win hearts for sure.''

Sure Neil, we will see.