Mumbai, April 17 (IANS): Actor Madhur Mittal, who plays a villain in the forthcoming Hindi thriller "Maatr", believes that people are grey, and that its always interesting to explore that side on screen.

He had received a lot of appreciation for portraying the character of a baddie with such ease in the Oscar-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" and will now be seen essaying a darker character in Raveena Tandon-starrer "Maatr". 

Commenting on why he likes doing negative characters, he said in a statement: "I want to do roles where I can establish myself as an actor...the kind of roles where I have a lot to do as an actor, a place to show my potential... 

"It makes me take up these dark roles. There is much more to play with it and I believe that we as people are not white or dark, but grey and it's always interesting to explore that side."

In "Maatr", his character Apurva has no major reason to be bad. 

"He's the chief minister's son, has the best of life, yet the spawn of the devil plays its part on him," he said. 

Talking about preparation for his role, he said: "I started off by hanging out with the people in the city and remembering my old days because I've stayed in Delhi for a year before coming to Mumbai. 

"So, it helped me get with the lingo. Apart from that, I read about the cases that have occurred in the past and watched a few documentaries as well."

"Maatr" deals with crime against women in society.