I don't know the reason why someone would not speak up about sexual harassment. I don't know why it doesn't happen here, but I am sure it exists not only in our industry, but every industry, it is there.

When you are successful, the perception of the people around you changes. If I do a variety of work, people notice me differently, and that is what is happening. I am fortunate to get these opportunities.

'Stree' is a horror comedy in which a bridal ghost who is back in town to take revenge from men, she is the one giving a lot of pain to the men. We have reversed the role, which is such an amazing feeling.

No, nothing much has changed in me as an actor. Since the day I started out, I always wanted to be part of good stories. The only thing that has changed is now I have options of good stories to choose from.

We are seeing how people we have looked up to and were inspired by in our work have suddenly just gone because there are such serious allegations against them. I really don't know why it is not happening here.

'Stree' is something fresh and new. Audiences want to see different kind of content on-screen, and 'Stree' is exactly that. It is a unique genre - horror-comedy - which has not been explored much in our country.

My parameter of judging a script has not changed over the years. I still go for a script where the story interests me. Yes, there are times where I might go wrong; say, out of five scripts, I might go wrong on one.

There are times when I do feel very nervous when I start a film. And I feel very nervous before the release. I do get stuck in some scenes, but that's very natural and human. It happens to all the artistes in the world.

When Raj and DK came and narrated me the script, the title was something else. But in conversation, I told them if we can name it 'Stree'. In a way, I was the one who decided the title. I found that one word very catchy.

I want to keep running. I don't ever want this journey to finish. And for that to happen, you can't put too much of your brain in doing things and can't connect too many dots because, anyway, there is no guarantee of anything.

What's the fun in doing conventional things? I would rather be known as someone who is unconventional. I like being unconventional. I like doing things which are different. That's what I like... It gives me a boost as an actor.

The only thing that I know is that if I like a particular script, I want to be as honest to my character as possible. That's the only thing I can control. I have made a lot of decisions on an impulse, and I am going to continue that.

I don't know how my body would react if I don't eat for 10 days. In order to go through that experience, I almost did not eat or drink water for 15-20 days. I only had one carrot a day, a cup of black coffee, and a few sips of water.

In 'Stree', I had a great time working with the whole team and Dinu, being the producer and one of the most important people. And now we are doing another film together, and I'm sure there will be a couple of more films in the future.

I think God made this very path for me, and he guided me all throughout. And my family has always been very supportive. It's not like one day I sat across the dinner table and told them I want to be an actor. It didn't happen like that.

The speed at which cinema is changing, the definition of hero is also changing. Even a big superstar like Aamir sir plays the role of a father. There's action genre, where you have to show body and do stunts, so you may call that a hero.

I feel since people have started noticing me and enjoying my performance, and considering the kind of love I've got in 2017-18, many feel that I have arrived, because there's a belief that I can probably carry a film on my shoulders now.

If someone comes to me with a script and says, 'Sir, this hero...' I'm like, 'Is there a name, or he is just called a hero?' We are not heroes. Heroes are people fighting for us at the border. We are not heroes; we are just doing our job.

Winning in Berlinale, in Hong Kong, and then to get such an amazing response, reviews, and now to be India's official entry for Oscars... My mother is right up there and keeping a check on me. Her blessings are always going to be with me, I know.

Whatever I am today is mostly because of my training at FTII. It taught me to be disciplined as an actor. People accuse us of being lazy and presume that we smoke up and laze about in the campus, which is not true at all. FTII courses are hard work.

I don't take pressure. I can't really work under pressure. I do one film at a time, and I try to live in that character and in the moment. I am not a futuristic person who thinks what is going to happen after five years. And I don't live in the past.

Though 'Shahid' was the only true story, what happened in 'Trapped' can happen to anyone. And I am sure there are people like Newton, and there are boys who are naive, sweet, and rowdy, like my part in 'Bareilly'... The humanness is something I loved.

We're just actors, man, just part of things. We're just doing our jobs, like everyone else does their jobs. The adulation for us is much more because we are always in the public eye. But I never became an actor because I wanted people to scream out my name.

People took notice of me and saw that I can carry off light-hearted roles as well. They started talking about Pritam Vidrohi, and it became a lovable character; I saw that people were clapping and whistling. It was a big high to watch this kind of reaction.

It's a one-day story of a guy called Newton Kumar, and the backdrop is election: how the most powerful tool we have as citizens is vote but how we don't utilise it. We really don't give importance to it. It talks about democracy; it's a satire, a black comedy.

There is a sense of responsibility when you play a real-life character because there are people who will see your work, make comparisons, and judge you. They have all the rights to do that because they know the real person. They might have seen that person also.

I always feel secure. I can't be a pure actor if I feel insecure. I can't let other things take over my love for acting. For me, it's a giving art. It is not something which I am doing for myself. I am doing it for my co-actors, unless it is something like 'Trapped'.

There was a phase where nothing was going right, and the thought crossed my mind that what is going to happen. Since I had no Plan B, I was sure from the beginning that I love acting and this is what I want to do for the rest of my life, so I had to be ready to struggle.

How content-driven cinema worked so well... Yeah, the shift is definitely happening... It is such a good change, and it is the kind of change I would like to see so that we just go to watch a film and not put them into brackets - that this is an art film or commercial movie.

I was born and brought up in Gurgaon to a middle class family. My father, now retired, worked with the revenue department, and my mother is a housewife. I have two siblings who are both married and have kids. But I was always interested in doing something apart from studies.

'Newton' is a very Indian film. I think, after a long time, people will see an Indian film in its true form. As in the story, the character, it is set in the heartland of India, but it's purely like how there was a time when Hrishikesh Mukherjee used to make sweet Indian films.

In Delhi, I became a serious stage actor. Then, luckily, the FTII acting course began, and I studied there, spent some time working on my craft. In 2008, I moved to Mumbai, and then in one and a half years of so-called struggle, I got my first film, 'Love Sex aur Dhokha' (LSD).

I don't think that now I am a star. I don't get too much time to interact with people, and I am quite busy with work. I work. I come back home, and my loved ones are still the same. They will never change. And, I travel. I have not realised or internalised that life has changed.

The process of playing a character as dark as Omar Saeed Sheikh is disturbing. So you have to mentally also be in that psyche, that state of mind. So, it was not easy. I was trying to cultivate a lot of anger and hatred in me while portraying him, because that's what I read and heard about him.

I was a very outgoing guy. I loved roaming around, hanging out with friends. From class 5th, I practised and learnt martial arts for about 7-8 years and have won medals at the national level. Then I trained in dancing on stage. In class 10th, I acted in my first play, and that's when I realised I wanted to become an actor.

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