Aditya Roy Kapur will soon be seen romancing Katrina Kaif in their forthcoming film Fitoor. He tells Rupinder Kaur about his complex character and learning on the job
Aditya Roy Kapur fluttered many hearts when he softly crooned Sun Raha Hai Na Tu for his film Aashiqui 2. You may still hear the faint sighs as the song plays even today putting many in a reminiscence mode. The suave actor is again back with director Abhishek Kapoor’s Fitoor, based on Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, opposite the gorgeous Katrina Kaif. It releases on February 12.
The tag of a ‘romantic hero’ is now inevitable but the former VJ is fine with it “as long it is a good tag.”
It is not very usual for an actor to admit that getting into films or acting wasn’t really their forte at first. For Kapur, “it just happened.”
“I was a VJ which, at first, I was reluctant about but then I did it and started loving it. I did it for four-and-a-half years, interviewed many people from the film industry but I never grew up watching Hindi films or idolised any actor. The idea of being an actor was a fantastical one,” shared the 30-year-old.
It was after bagging a role in Vipul Shah’s london Dreams (2009) that Kapur, who is also popular Bollywood producer Siddharth Roy Kapur’s brother, stepped into to the film industry but as a supporting actor which then continued till his breakthrough with Aashiqui 2.
“During that time, my world suddenly changed. I grew to love acting while acting,” he exclaims.
With no formal training in acting, Kapur fondly remembered getting up on stage during his school as that guy in the background who would only do plays to bunk lectures.”
“Even while filming london Dreams, I remember just learning my lines, deliver them and be like ‘I’m done,’” said the Guzaarish actor.
He also starred in Ayan Mukherji’s Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani alongside Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone and said that “I needed to do YJHD for Aashiqui 2 to happen.”
“I met Ayan and he told me that we wanted me to do this role but again it was a supporting one which I wasn’t keen on and wanted to step up. It was a Ranbir-Deepika film but to Ayan’s credit, he put up everything on the screen that was in the script. People remember that film as an ensemble film. At that time, that was quite a decision for me to take. I had told myself that I will be working with a good production house, good actors and I'll be seen in a right place so I just took that leap of faith and went for it. I got a call for Aashiqui 2 when I was shooting for YJHD as the creators had seen my pictures from the film’s photoshoot. So work gets you work and you have to keep going,” he explained.
He elaborated that in order to play the character of Noor in Fitoor, he had to go through a “bunch of avenues.”
“I had to lose a lot of weight since I had put on so much after Daawat-e-ishq and Abhishek (Kapoor) wanted me to be lean. I lost about 18 kilos in about 10 months I got into the crazy routine and was pretty obsessed with that but it helped me focus on other things as well. Some characters also require you to acquire a skill so as to make it look more convincing. Plus Noor, is a painter and works with wood and metal as well. I took a bunch of classes to look the part,” he shared.
He also spent some time in Kashmir conversing with the locals as well. “Their pace of life and state of mind are different as well. I also had to wrap my head around the idea of being in love with a person and not have that love reciprocated. This was something I’d never felt. But I needed to understand the character and it fairly was a complex one,” he concluded.
photo Pankaj Kumar