'Life's come a full circle'

If one looks at the career graph of Arjun Kapoor, clearly something is working for him. Starting with Habib Faisal’s Ishaqzaade to starring opposite Deepika Padukone in Homi Adajania’s upcoming ‘Finding Fanny Fernandes’, interesting projects always seem to come his way.

But currently, all his energy is going into promoting Abhishek Varman’s ‘2 States’, in which he plays Krish Malhotra, a soft-spoken, family-oriented Punjabi boy, opposite Alia Bhatt.

Since the movie is based on Chetan Bhagat’s book of the same name, one would assume that he would have given it a read. However, Arjun says that since he never anticipated that the role would be offered to him, he didn’t indulge in reading it. “It never figured in my scheme of thinking because Shah Rukh (Khan), Saif (Ali Khan) etc were being considered to do the adaptation.

I didn’t think I’d get to do it. I even told Abhishek I’d read it but he told me that I was going in a decent direction with the character and to find my own interpretation,” he tells Metrolife on his recent visit to the City.

What few people know is that he began his tryst with Bollywood as an assistant director for Kal Ho Naa Ho and later, Salaam-E-Ishq. “I did those when I was 16 and lots of things have happened in my life after that. But to summarise it, my first paycheck was from Dharma (Productions). Yash Johar signed it for Rs 3000 and today, I am working as an actor in a Dharma film (‘2 States’). So I guess life’s come a full circle from where I started,” he says.

All praises for his co-star, he confesses that he initially undermined Alia seeing the age difference between them. “I slightly undermined Alia because I thought she’d be too young to co-relate to my thought process because I was 27 when we started and she was 19. I didn’t know her personally and had only met her socially a couple of times. I also thought that we might not turn out to be friends and just be co-actors. But that changed in about five days of shooting. It’s been an amazing journey with her,” he reveals.

When asked how he got into the shoes of Krish Malhotra, he says that because he could relate to the character, he didn’t have to “sit back, analyse and get into it”. “I could relate to the boy because of his emotional dynamics and thought process. He could easily go astray and be a defiant, arrogant, spoiled brat but he chooses not to.

He tells his mother that he has always tried to fill the void in her life and all he wants is to marry the girl he loves. I related to that,” he says. “I did some voice modulation and really softened the character’s voice. I also softened his body movements considerably and was not overtly expressive with my face. Those are things I’ve done for myself. But if someone gets that seeing the film, that’s fantastic!” notes
Arjun.

Was this one of his most interesting projects? “They’ve all been interesting and given me something in their own ways. I relate to the emotions of ‘2 States’ and am a ‘fanboy’ of Gunday. ‘Aurangzeb’ was a unique experience and Ishaqzaade was my first love and will never go away,” he concludes.