Saksham Sharma has transitioned from magician to movie magic in impressive fashion. The multi-talented performer stars opposite Liam Neeson in Ice Road: Vengeance, the sequel to the 2021 thriller The Ice Road. In the follow-up, Saksham portrays Vijay Rai—who becomes an ally to Neeson’s character Mike McCann as he fights off vicious mercenaries in Nepal. But Vijay isn’t just Mike’s sidekick; he and his father have their own emotional story that’s equally important to the film.

In conversation with TVBrittanyF.com, Saksham spoke about making his American film debut, the incredible amount of preparation he put into playing Vijay, and how he wound up teaching magic tricks to Liam Neeson. Learn more about this versatile artist in our interview.

Brittany Frederick: Adding movies to your resume has always been a goal for you. What was your reaction when you first heard about Ice Road: Vengeance, and then when you landed the part?

Saksham Sharma: I got an audition from my agent that came in… and it was so funny because I watched the first movie literally the day before I got the opportunity. I watched the first movie and I loved it. It was a great film. And then now I’ve got this audition, and I thought I wouldn’t even get [the part], to be honest. I was like, This is crazy. This opportunity is huge, and there’s no way it’s going to happen.

A couple of months later, I was told I was cast in this movie—and it was just a bizarre experience, because it’s such a huge movie, and [with] action scenes, and the character’s so well written. When I got to see the actual script, I was like how many times am I actually in this film? And I was like, holy moly, I’m the whole film. And the scenes, they were so beautifully written. The writer-director is Jonathan Hensleigh, and he’s done Young Indiana Jones, Jumanji. So it was a crazy experience to just be like oh my God, I’m actually a part of this film.

Your character Vijay is targeted by the film’s villains almost right off the bat. He’s in some tough situations, so what was the biggest challenge for you as an actor?

The way this film was shot, it was one, two takes. Some of these scenes are [on] big sets, and we’re breaking through the entire movie set in this one shot. So when you’re doing these things, blocking has to be perfect and you have to know where the camera is and you know where to go. Those scenes were high-pressure moments, because it’s a lot of money being spent as well, and you want to respect that.

And obviously my character has quite a lot of emotional scenes in the film, especially with the relationships with him and his dad, him and Liam, him and Fan Bingbing. It goes throughout the whole film. There’s a lot of emotional scenes [and] those were challenging to do. We also shot in Nepal—that was [a] very different environment for me, because I’d never been there.

Vijay and his family have their own fully developed emotional arc, which is unique for an action movie. In another film, he might have come second to Mike. How much did you dive into who he was, and the individual journey he went on, separate from all the action?

For all my characters, I write out my entire, backstory. When I walk onto the set, I have all this history about this character that the director might not even know. I have all of this research. I found images online of Nepalese individuals—people who have actually gone through these situations—so I kind of know what they feel like, sound like.

And when I spoke to the director, he also gave his input on what I what I wrote. But the shooting is so quick that you just have to be in the moment, you have to be there, and you need to do your research.

Movie fans may not know that you’re also a magician. How did that end up coming into play during the filming of Ice Road: Vengeance?

I was ten years old when I started doing magic tricks, and I was on Australia’s Got Talent, built a huge following on social media with magic. And in my auditions, I put in some tricks here and there. Like doing a scene, I’m spinning a coin in my finger, and then I get into the scene— when you do these things, casting directors [are] obviously, like, whoa. What is that?

When I was on the set for Ice Road, I was doing magic to Liam Neeson, to the producers, to the director when we were just chilling out. And so that became a thing. Me and Liam were like okay, if he teaches me one acting tip, I’ll teach him a magic trick. So he did, and then I taught him one magic trick that hopefully he’s worked on and improved on. But that was kind of the vibe there.

How do you see your career going forward? Do you want to keep pursuing multiple paths, or focus on anything in particular?

I definitely want to work in more films. I love action films. I love the action/thriller genre. And I love magic, so it’s not like just because I’m doing a movie, I’m not stopping magic. Magic is going to continue. I think it’s it’s such a beautiful art form. I would love to do a live tour around the world doing magic as well.

Ice Road: Vengeance is now available to stream on Prime Video. Photo Credit: Both photos courtesy of E2W Collective.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.