The candid Mr Kohli

Becoming a father has changed the way the actor approaches his work, he tells Showtime

He grew up in a family with a film background, but Purabh Kohli never thought he’d become an actor.

He became a part of Zee TV’s ‘Hip Hip Hurray’ when he was on his way to becoming a pilot.“I had a six-month break before I got back to college and I wanted to do something to pass time. That’s when I came across ‘Hip Hip Hurray’audition,” says Purab.

When he got through the final round, he decided to tell the crew that this was not an opportunity he was looking for. “I took two of my friends along and told them to wait outside as I’ll be back in a minute.”

The callback was a workshop for the 14 finalists, out of which, 12 would go on to do the show. Before he knew it, a minute turned into 45-minutes. “I was looking for a chance to say
something but I was so embarrassed to say it in front of others. So I just went along with it,” he recalls.

Once it was done, he thought to himself that it wasn’t so bad. He thought of it as something he could do while he attended college over the week. It was a way to earn some pocket money.

Even then, it was seven years later, with the release of ‘My Brother... Nikhil’, that he decided to become an actor. “I saw the power of cinema and what a performance can actually do
to the viewers,” he says. Prior to that, he became a popular VJ on Channel V and acted in three films, all of which he had done reluctantly.

His most popular role is perhaps as KD in ‘Rock On’. After the 2008 hit, he wanted to make the shift from playing supporting roles to playing a hero. “At that time, I took decisions that seemed right. In hindsight, I’d say some of those projects made me miss out on better opportunities,” says Purab.

He now picks roles based on the stories rather than the character. “I always look to be part of the conflict. It should either be the character with the conflict, which would generally
make you the protagonist, or someone who is part of the conflict that the protagonist goes to. In my latest project, ‘Out of Love’, my character Akarsh is in a conflict.”

‘Out of Love’, which is now streaming on Hotstar, sees Purab playing a cheating husband. The loyal husband and father of two had a tough time figuring out how to play this role.

“I think not being able to relate to a character is good because you don’t want to repeat your roles. I’ve always empathised with a character but it was difficult to do with Akarsh,” says Purab.

He describes Akarsh as someone who can’t “keep it in his pants” and is “a silly old fool”. He had to dig deep to find the ‘source’ of his character and even had extensive conversations
with director Tigmanshu Dhulia.

“Normally, I add a bit of myself to my characters, but this one was a revelation to me. I had to detach myself from him completely because he wasn’t like me at all.”

After becoming a father, his working style has changed too. “Before my daughter was born in 2015, I was a solo man without much responsibility. I used to take up one project in two years. You make enough money to survive without having to constantly work,” he says.

“But now, I feel the need to work more, not because of the money, but to be secure. I think it’s a masculine thing, to want to provide more.”

This new outlook is what made him move to London. After being part of ‘Sense8’, Purab wants to work on more international productions. “When I did ‘Sense8’, the web world was very nascent and Netflix had just exploded on to the scene. People are only now starting to watch (Sense8) in India,” he says.

Personally, he prefers films over series as he “likes my content to be quite crisp”. He also adds that as an actor, he is vain and that he loves to see himself on the big screen. “It’s good for the ego,” he jokes.

Despite this, he feels that everyone plays it safe in film because of the risk involved. “If you’re not doing that, you’re in the festival circuit, which is great, but the audience is limited and most people only see it when it eventually hits the web,” he says.

“You have a medium that you’re really excited about and want to be a part of, but the better stuff is really happening somewhere else.” He concludes the conversation by saying that he would choose the content over his ego any day.