Ayushmann Khurrana talks about being himself in ‘Vicky Donor’, among other things.
Ayushmann Khurrana agrees that the perception of Indian films has improved following the success of ‘Vicky Donor’, which was recently given the National Award in the Best Film category. “Earlier such topics were considered to be the most ‘tabooed’ subjects… I feel India has come of age. India belongs to the young-age category. The average Indian youth needs to take the reins of the country into his/her hand. I feel its youth leaders who will bring India up to global standards.”
He adds, “‘Lagaan’ was the film we took off from. Now, there are several great films being made: ‘Paan Singh Tomar’, ‘Vicky Donor’ etc. The story line has to be treated in a brilliant manner.”
Ayushmann does not feel the pressure. “I am not letting success or failure matter much. All I care for is that if a film does not do well, I should not feel guilty or believe that I haven’t performed to the best of my ability. I care for good content. I am a bit selfish because I like to give my 100% to my character. However, I am getting a lot of offers. I will not deny that ‘Vicky Donor’ has changed my stand to an extent. I do look for a script with the right mix of story and my role.”
Talking about playing a Punjabi man he says, “I am associated with Punjabi culture. So, it’s easier to play a Punjabi character. However, as an actor I look forward to working on real concepts and characters.”
On his theatre background he says, “Theatre makes us seasoned actors. But we need to be discipline. All theatre actors have that profile, simply because having to give back-to-back performances make us very disciplined.”
On playing the lead in ‘Nautanki Saala’ he says, “Playing Ravana’s character feels great. My debut theatre play was ‘Merchant Of Venice’ in which, I played Shylock’s character, which too was a grey character. As actors we play different characters. Even Shah Rukh Khan played a grey character in ‘Darr’.”
All praises for director Rohan Sippy he says, “He is a stylish director, very clear about the character sketch. I liked the scenes he canned in ‘Bluffmaster’ and ‘Dum Maaro Dum’.”
Ayushman is happy working with YRF on a new project. “I have finished one schedule for the film. After the release of ‘Nautanki Saala’, I will be going for the second schedule. The film has touched on the issue of recession. The film industry was not much affected by the recession, but I feel people from the corporate world did face problems. The film has a realistic value. I am part of an airline and the story talks about how things work out. It feels great to be associated with Yash Raj Films,” he concludes.
Lipika Varma
