Fugly actor Arfi lamba defends the controversial song saying the lyrics bat for injustice against homosexuality. He chatted with Karan Bhardwaj about his forthcoming Hollywood projects
Uff, That’s Fugly!” said Arfi lamba, one of the lead actors in Fugly, as a vehicle honked continuously making it impossible to carry forward the conversation with us. When we called back, he explained, “Fugly is something which is ultra ugly. It can be anything which is ‘uncool’. And it is something we should raise our voice against.”
The movie, produced by Akshay Kumar’s Grazing Goat Pictures, also stars boxer Vijendra Singh, Anil Kapoor’s nephew Mohit Marwah and Jimmy Shergill. It is a story of four guys, who are leading a happy-go-lucky life world until they land into a mess. “It’s about our choices in life. If something sounds cool, then you should be sure about it. When you are young, you avoid to take charge and responsibilities. So a lot of young people can relate to the characters,” says the actor, who was last seen in award-winning films Prague and Slumdog Millionaire. Recently, the gay activist expressed anguish over the lyrics of one of the songs. “It’s being misread. The idea was to say something in favour and not against the issue. We wanted to say that it’s not fair to control anyone’s choices. So we didn’t mean to mock anybody,” clarified the actor.
lamba said he has become a better person as he can understand things and relate to his mistakes in the past. The film marks the debut of boxer Vijendra Singh, who developed compatibility with lamba on the sets. “We have lots of similarities in terms of background and upbringing. Now we are close buddies,” he told us.
lamba’s life and dreams were like any other North Indian guy. He grew up on movies of Yash Chopra and Shah Rukh Khan. “I come from Muga, a small village in Punjab. So it was always like, padho likho aur yaha se bhago. For me, cinema was my destiny. So after living in Delhi for over two years and practising engineering in a government office, I rushed to Mumbai for acting,” he said. In Mumbai, lamba joined Dinesh Thakur’s theatre group and soon grabbed his maiden project Slumdog Millionaire. His next is Million Dollar Date, which will go on floors this June.