From an AD to a hero

Just like a typical Bollywood movie, this geek in school and college dreamt of making it big and then underwent a makeover to be launched as a ‘Hindi-film hero’! All set for the release of his debut film Luv u Soniyo this Friday, Tanuj Virwani – better known as son of actress Rati Agnihotri, will now be seen as a cool dude bullying geeks in his reel class to get proxy attendance!

“I was always inclined towards doing something creative,” says Tanuj who didn’t get a filmy upbringing as such. “In my formative years I never saw mom in the limelight. So the decision to choose acting as a career has got nothing to do with my mother being in this industry. I could have taken up my father’s construction business but that just didn’t excite me,” adds the newbie who decided to follow his heart and join films.

His choice seemed distant when he was still studying because “I stammered, was extremely overweight and wore soda bottle glasses!” Definitely not ‘hero’ material. “However, deep down I wanted to pursue acting but didn’t have the courage to tell everyone because I knew they would laugh at me.”

He thus went behind the scenes first and played assistant director for Shahid Kapoor starrer Chance Pe Dance. “I worked my way up the ladder. The way the actors used to switch off and on in front of the camera sparked off something in me and there was a self-realisation. I was also often asked to stand in for light check. Especially since I am the same height as that of Aftab, production people often made me stand in his place. I realised, I just liked being there!”

Soon he began working upon his image and now intends to carry forward his mother’s legacy but in his style. Choosing a romcom for his debut is his conscious choice. “Other scripts offered to me had dark characters. Since it was my debut, I wanted to start with a family entertainer. As a genre, the love story is an integral part of our industry. But in my future projects you will see me in different characters for sure,” says the actor refuting the common notion that “playing the boy-next-door is easy. I had only my college days as my reference point.”

“We have purposely kept the story simple,” he informs adding that, “It is not an ambitious film yet intends to entertain the audience and makes them reap every penny they spent for this film!” Such is his confidence that he has already signed a three film deal with Eros and first in this series titled Purani Jeans will be out by December.