Aayush sharma|He made his debut with Loveyatri in 2018. He now features in the recently released music video Manjha. Sharma speaks with Musba Hashmi about the success of the song, how he is spending time with family during the lockdown and roles that attract him
Your latest song Manjha received good response and is trending. How does that feel?
I am happy about it. The success of the song has gone beyond my expectations. I was sure that it will get a good response but trending was something that I didn’t expect. I am happy and excited that people like the audio and the lyrics and the song by and large. Because it is different from the kind of music that is coming out these days.
The song talks about the love for kites in the times of TikTok. Do you think relationships these days are losing essence?
The relationships are evolving with every decade. With the evolving technology, we are definitely losing the essence of a basic relationship. When was I a teenager, that time we didn’t have social media, there was no direct way of getting in touch with the one you love. If somehow one is to manage their contact number, then the confusion was how to call them up, what if their parent’s will answer the call. Somehow we used to get through and then feeling excited for the first conversation. People used to discover each others’ likes and dislikes gradually and in real time unlike today when everything is just a click away. Those days were just right for having and maintaining good relationships.
Now, once can find a partner or social media. The chase and the desire to be with your partner is lost in a way. Couples, even if they are together, are busy in conversing with the world through their mobile phones instead of each other. Therefore, relationships have definitely lost that essence and spark.
You featured in the song along with Saiee Manjrekar. How was it like to work with her?
She is an extremely pleasant person to work with. She brings a lot of positive energy on the sets. This is my first experience working with her and all I can say is she is extremely sweet. She has a lot of humour. And more than everything else, she is an qualified actor. She is a different person when the camera is not rolling and the moment the director says ‘action’ she becomes serious and just gets into the skin of the character. At times, I used to make funny faces in between the shots to make her laugh. But she just sticks around her character and didn’t even pass a smile.
What is keeping you busy these days?
We are all quarantined right now and the only thing that is keeping me busy is changing my daughter’s diapers, giving her food, carrying her around, spending time with Ahil (son) and watching animated movies with him. That’s what I am doing until the lockdown is over and post this, once everything is settled in the country we will be revealing the pre-production of my next film, which I am very excited about. The announcement shall come in sometime.
How do you think you have evolved as an artist?
I still haven’t reached the stage where I can say I have achieve everything or I am a versatile actor now. When I did Loveyatri, it was like teenage kind of romance now when I did Manjha, I changed my approach and my physique. I had to look like a mature man. So, I need to keep working hard and improving myself. No actor at any point can say that I have learnt it all. Every role you play and every project that you do, teaches you something new. I have just started off and I have a long way to go. After a career of 20 years, most likely I can say I have achieve it all. As of now, I am just a student of acting.
What are some of the milestones that you aim to achieve?
I want to bring in new things with every project that I do. I want to explore the field and just surprise the audience with everything that I do. I want to play an antagonist, a grey character and explore comedy. In the long run, I just want to come forward and say I have done it all. The milestone I want to achieve is that a person should turn around and say that we cannot imagine Aayush in just one thing. He can do everything out there.
What kind of roles attract you?
Like I said, I want to play a grey character. Films are very much made keeping in mind what appeals to the maximum number of people. When you are playing a protagonist, most of the times it is purely a white character irrespective of whatever is happening in the film. I want to play a honest character, who can have flaws. and something that reflects the society. He doesn’t need to be perfect. I want to experiment with that, now whether I will land such a role is a different conversation altogether.
Does that mean you would like to play a character like Kabir Singh?
We, at cinema say that we shouldn’t propagate something that is not right. It is a two conversation part. Both are right. The other says that we have the larger responsibility to make sure that people doesn’t imitate what we do on screen. Having said that, there is also a side of the society who are not influenced of what we are doing and they do certain things. What is right and wrong is a parameter that depends on the relationship of the person. The society can’t tell what is right or wrong, it depends on the relationship at the end of the day and what people are okay with and what not. I don’t see any problem with Kabir Singh because such characters are already there, you can’t deny the existence of such characters. I don’t mind playing a character like Kabir Singh. The kind of success the film has seen shows that people do associate with him. If not, they wouldn’t have decided to see the film. It shows that they understand that such characters do exist.