Posted:
Arjun One two ka four!
The actor has had just four releases in two years in the film industry, with his last outing set to touch the '100-crore mark this week
Upala KBR
DNA
May 12, 2014
Arjun Kapoor has just completed two years in the industry. His last film 2 States is inching towards the'100-crore mark. He is the first of the young breed of actors to achieve this feat. The actor surprised the critics and the audiences with his last film in a character, few thought he could pull off. Everyone assumed he was best suited to play a scruffy bad boy with stubble. But Arjun bowled over everyone as the geek in 2 States. And this talented lad has more surprises up his sleeve. Here, he talks about his choices, his journey, and the people who helped him get here...
You have broken the mould with 2 States. What if you had gotten slotted?
I would have worked hard to break that. It's exhausting as an actor to do the same shit all over again. You need to reinvent yourself because you want to go on the set with the fear in the pit of your stomach not knowing how you are going to do today.
Five years from now what kind of roles do you see yourself doing?
I want to do performance-oriented films. Beyond a certain point, that's what keeps you alive as an actor. Commercial cinema will always be around. Just the way it's treated, will keep changing. It will get little more sensible, cooler, younger, as time progresses. I would like to be somebody who strikes a balance between masala and sensible films. I would like to do darker roles, more comedies, an espionage thriller, a murder mystery, the genres are unlimited... I feel that young actors are ready to do a Barfi and Vicky Donor, now the writers are also writing different kind of roles...
What's your biggest fear?
That I will fit into the prototype of the masala film hero. I have been told that by too many people, I have tried to ignore it very often, but I have been told that by intelligent, sensible people who understand the workings of this profession that I fit into all those trappings that the other boys don't. I fit slightly more into brooding, intense but I guess to some extent 2 States has, and Finding Fanny Fernandes will define for me whether I belong in those worlds. I would still persist, if a producer or director came to me giving me a chance to do something that is different and unique, I will grab it. Today if an Imtiaz Ali came with a rom-com, I would jump at it, because I wouldn't be like market kya dictate karti hai.
Would you do a film if you weren't convinced about it and Aditya Chopra was?
I would have read the script he wouldn't have, and he doesn't ever get into the process of sitting and reading scripts that we choose to do. He goes with our conviction first. So if am not convinced, he will ask me not to do a film. And there have been many examples of that. There were many scripts that made sense on paper, but after reading or hearing the script, I have gone back to him and said I am unsure. And he said Don't do it. Because you will never be able to get 100 per cent to it.' He's very fair. There's no pressure from him. He's like that voice you want to hear. If there is a doubt in your mind he will underline the exact point that you need to hear when you need to take the final call. And it's the same thing with my dad, surprisingly even though he's not actively making as many films right now, like he used to, but he's instinctively a consumer, he understands the audience and he says things like: You must do this for this reason. They both have an equal understanding of the industry and the audience.
Are you in touch with Salman?
Any big decision I make, I tell him. Like signing 2 States with Sajid Nadiadwala, who is his friend. I went and told him first. He already knows what's happening in my life anyway. When the first trailer of Aurangzeb was released, I went and showed it to him. I couldn't show him the promo of Gunday because he was in Romania... The day he landed, he went to Karjat.
He's the first one who saw the actor in you, right?
He's the only one who saw it in me. And he's the only one who nurtured me when nobody else believed in me. He has corrected eveything from my walk to the way I used to talk to everything. He would make me walk on Carter Road and Bandstand and say who would want to watch a film if you walk like this sloppy human being. I am so glad that people are getting to see his real side now. He was so misconstrued for so many years. I knew him even back then and I used to wonder why people don't get what a great guy he is. Then Dus Ka Dum happened and it changed things. When people saw how he really is, and how he interacts with people, the impression changed. Everybody thinks things changed after Wanted, which I agree, my father made an action film with him after so many years. He enjoyed action and then it opened his mind towards doing commercial cinema again.
If you need to talk about something who would you go to?
I don't talk about things to anybody. I think and I think and I think. I solve it on my own.
So, no 4 am friend?
The serious stuff I keep it to myself. There have been situations where I have spoken to my friends, my family... but I don't pick up the phone and say I need to talk. If it happens in conversation, it happens. Otherwise I mostly handle it myself. My demons are created by me, I don't know how to take help to solve them. I will be in a better position once I find some balance in my personal and professional life.
You have broken the mould with 2 States. What if you had gotten slotted?
I would have worked hard to break that. It's exhausting as an actor to do the same shit all over again. You need to reinvent yourself because you want to go on the set with the fear in the pit of your stomach not knowing how you are going to do today.
Five years from now what kind of roles do you see yourself doing?
I want to do performance-oriented films. Beyond a certain point, that's what keeps you alive as an actor. Commercial cinema will always be around. Just the way it's treated, will keep changing. It will get little more sensible, cooler, younger, as time progresses. I would like to be somebody who strikes a balance between masala and sensible films. I would like to do darker roles, more comedies, an espionage thriller, a murder mystery, the genres are unlimited... I feel that young actors are ready to do a Barfi and Vicky Donor, now the writers are also writing different kind of roles...
What's your biggest fear?
That I will fit into the prototype of the masala film hero. I have been told that by too many people, I have tried to ignore it very often, but I have been told that by intelligent, sensible people who understand the workings of this profession that I fit into all those trappings that the other boys don't. I fit slightly more into brooding, intense but I guess to some extent 2 States has, and Finding Fanny Fernandes will define for me whether I belong in those worlds. I would still persist, if a producer or director came to me giving me a chance to do something that is different and unique, I will grab it. Today if an Imtiaz Ali came with a rom-com, I would jump at it, because I wouldn't be like market kya dictate karti hai.
Would you do a film if you weren't convinced about it and Aditya Chopra was?
I would have read the script he wouldn't have, and he doesn't ever get into the process of sitting and reading scripts that we choose to do. He goes with our conviction first. So if am not convinced, he will ask me not to do a film. And there have been many examples of that. There were many scripts that made sense on paper, but after reading or hearing the script, I have gone back to him and said I am unsure. And he said Don't do it. Because you will never be able to get 100 per cent to it.' He's very fair. There's no pressure from him. He's like that voice you want to hear. If there is a doubt in your mind he will underline the exact point that you need to hear when you need to take the final call. And it's the same thing with my dad, surprisingly even though he's not actively making as many films right now, like he used to, but he's instinctively a consumer, he understands the audience and he says things like: You must do this for this reason. They both have an equal understanding of the industry and the audience.
Are you in touch with Salman?
Any big decision I make, I tell him. Like signing 2 States with Sajid Nadiadwala, who is his friend. I went and told him first. He already knows what's happening in my life anyway. When the first trailer of Aurangzeb was released, I went and showed it to him. I couldn't show him the promo of Gunday because he was in Romania... The day he landed, he went to Karjat.
He's the first one who saw the actor in you, right?
He's the only one who saw it in me. And he's the only one who nurtured me when nobody else believed in me. He has corrected eveything from my walk to the way I used to talk to everything. He would make me walk on Carter Road and Bandstand and say who would want to watch a film if you walk like this sloppy human being. I am so glad that people are getting to see his real side now. He was so misconstrued for so many years. I knew him even back then and I used to wonder why people don't get what a great guy he is. Then Dus Ka Dum happened and it changed things. When people saw how he really is, and how he interacts with people, the impression changed. Everybody thinks things changed after Wanted, which I agree, my father made an action film with him after so many years. He enjoyed action and then it opened his mind towards doing commercial cinema again.
If you need to talk about something who would you go to?
I don't talk about things to anybody. I think and I think and I think. I solve it on my own.
So, no 4 am friend?
The serious stuff I keep it to myself. There have been situations where I have spoken to my friends, my family... but I don't pick up the phone and say I need to talk. If it happens in conversation, it happens. Otherwise I mostly handle it myself. My demons are created by me, I don't know how to take help to solve them. I will be in a better position once I find some balance in my personal and professional life.
Anupamaa
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