After Ki & Ka, Arjun Kapoor has not taken up many projects. He tells Subhash K. Jha why
Why are you doing so little work?
All my contemporaries are working that way. Ranbir Kapoor has only Jagga Jasoos. Ranveer Singh is doing only Befikre. And please don’t forget one very important factor in my career… I also did the maximum number of films in the shortest span of time after I made my debut. After Tevar I decided to take it easy.
Why?
Promoting a film is as grueling as making it.
Your next film?
I am now doing only Half Girlfriend in which I play a Bihari boy very far removed from the way Biharis are perceived in our films. He is an intelligent guy who plays basketball.
Are you playing it with a stereotypical Bihari accent?
No I want to make it real. I am working on the accent and body language.
You played a very aggressive character in Ishaqzaade, while in Ki & Ka you are just the opposite…
Yes, if in real life a boy behaved the way I did in Ishaqzaade with a girl, he would be beaten up. I started off as the quintessential rebel hero and then went on to do more conventional roles in Gunday,Tevar and 2 States.
Why did you make this very unconventional start?
Adi Chopra considered me the apt choice for this animal-like lover-boy. He feels my animal looks went well with the role.
What is so animal about your looks?
I think I’ve droopy eyes, an arrogant smirk and of course the facial hair. I guess I look like that unkempt guy whom girls can’t take home to their mothers. I guess I am, in my own way, quite unique in my looks.
The generation that has come in with you doesn’t copy any of the greats like Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan or Rajesh Khanna…
We are trying to find our own place. We’re young and we need to nurture our fan-base on our own. Let’s see if we have a more fixed image six-seven years from now.
