Sweet dreams are made of these

We asked Jim Sarbh which imaginary things he wishes were real. He went nuts. Dream machines, daemons, invisibility cloaks, calmer cities. The actor isn't afraid of wanting a better world

- Karishma Kuenzang

Of course, we can imagine a world without Jim Sarbh. We just don’t want to. The actor, a week short of 36, sprung onto the scene seemingly from nowhere in 2016, all cheekbones, poker face, piercing eyes and tight curls. He played the terrorist Khalil, in Neerja, a film about the attempted 1986 hijacking of Pan AmFlight 73 in Karachi, which was thwarted by its brave head purser, Neerja Bhanot. 

He was the bad guy in Padmaavat (2018) and Sanju (2018) and revealed a softer side in the music video for Prateek Kuhad’s cold/mess (2018). Sarbh has also landed roles in big-ticket films such as Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022), in which he plays journalist Hamid Fezi; web series such as Rocket Boys (2022), in which he appears as scientist Homi J Bhabha.

And here he is, as a rich, spoilt, cheating, Delhi brat in Zoya Akhtar's Made in Heaven Season 2. Weddings are no fairy tale; fiction is often the inspiration for reality. So, who better than Sarbh to talk about his favourite imaginary objects and ideas. The world he's dreamed up seems like so much fun!

The Babel Fish. Douglas Adams invented it for the sci-fi classic The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Stick the fish in your ear, and it translates any language. The books call it the oddest thing in the universe. But it's a thing of genius. "The ability to speak any language instantly would be cool," says Sarbh.

What I wish were real: