Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; October 2, 2018)

With films like Vicky Donor (2012), Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015), Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017) and Shubh Mangal Saavdhan (2017), Ayushmann Khurrana has carved a niche for himself in Bollywood. His onscreen characters often celebrate the quirks and joys of contemporary middle-class India. As someone who grew up on a staple diet of commercial naach-gaana films, Ayushmann’s deepest desire is to switch lanes, and become a commercial, blockbuster star. But until that happens, he is enjoying the mould he has set himself in. Ahead of his next, Sriram Raghavan’s AndhaDhun, the actor talks to BT about how he prepped for his character in the film and why bending genres with every film can actually be detrimental to an actor’s shelf life. Excerpts:

After jokes about donating sperms and suffering erectile dysfunction, there’s now a running gag on social media that erectile dysfunction can also lead to blindness! How do you react to such memes?
(Laughs!) Yeah, I know. It’s so funny. It’s amazing. I love these jokes and I also self-troll, because I don’t take myself too seriously. I enjoy the humour. There is no point in taking yourself too seriously. I come from a background of anchoring shows, writing funny lines for radio programmes and reviewing movies.

As anchors, we would troll ourselves and crack jokes on others, too. So, I take these things on the internet with a pinch of salt and it really works. You might remember the kind of stuff we would say while reviewing films on our shows. The way we’d joke and pass comments was hilarious. So, there’s no point getting offended and feeling bad.

Vicky Kaushal, Rajkummar Rao and you seem to have become poster boys of new-age parallel cinema, thanks to the kind of films you all have picked...
I think everyone is a hero in their own right. Varun Dhawan, Ranbir Kapoor and Ranveer Singh have more commercial success, while we are more realistic. Their films release on a bigger scale and are mounted in that manner. Our budgets and release scales are lower, but even then, our success ratio is almost as good as theirs. I’ve always believed that getting respect as an artiste is of utmost importance.

Do you secretly want to change sides?
I want to and I am a huge fan of commercial films. I grew up on cinema that had songs and dance, but there’s a certain path you tread, which somewhat depends on where you start. My path was set with Vicky Donor, while Varun’s was set with Student Of The Year (2012). For him, doing a film like Badlapur (2015) is different. For me, it’s AndhaDhun. Our staple spaces are different from each other, though I would love to change gears and be that bade parde ka hero… For now, Varun and I have exchanged our directors. He’s worked with Sharat Katariya, while I’ve worked with Sriram Raghavan.

You’re playing a visually-challenged pianist in AndhaDhun. You prepped for three months, trying to get the nuances of your character right. Isn’t investing so much time in one project a risk?
I wasn’t training for this film 24x7. Yes, I spent a couple of hours almost daily, but people also spend that much time in the gym every day. Prepping for my role in this film was more important than working out. So, I spent about five-six hours doing my homework, but I also managed to shoot Baadhai Ho along with it. I think being able to juggle time and mind space comes with the trajectory of being an actor.

The story of AndhaDhun is a far cry from the plot of your previous films — the middle-class Indian love story set against a quirky idea. Was breaking the mould your intention behind selecting this film?
The only conscious effort on my part is to look for a new story. Romance is a common thread in 99 per cent our films and we are suckers for it. There’s a romantic streak even in this film, but that doesn’t drive the film. To answer your question, yes, there was a conscious effort to break the mould. I had never approached a director for a film, but when I got to know about AndhaDhun, I made an exception. When I reached out to Sriram Raghavan, he said, ‘It’s not a slice-of-life film.’ I told him, ‘I don’t expect that.’ I met him and we did a screen test with two scenes, and then, we were on. Directors usually don’t screen test established actors here. It’s a norm in the West, and it should be here as well. What is the problem? As actors, you are acting day in and day out. Why not enact a part, convince the filmmaker that you can pull it off and earn it? That is what happened here. I know it’s an unusual casting for his film, but that makes it unique.

What triggered this thought for consciously chasing a film like this?
Novelty! We actors tend to take ourselves too seriously. We want to ‘look different’ in our movies, but we forget that people want a new story, not a new-looking actor. Your job is to portray your part as uniquely as you can. After AndhaDhun, I’ll be back in the mould that I was trying to break with Badhaai Ho. The film is in my staple zone, but it’s about how differently you present a character and make the story unique. As an actor, you can break moulds with every film, but that exhausts you. You need to establish yourself in one genre, break out of it occasionally and return to it, while trying to do different things within that space. Bending genres with every film shouldn’t become the norm; it can be detrimental to your shelf-life as an actor.

But won’t that confuse your audience?
The audience doesn’t care much for an actor’s last film once they start watching his new film. The situation this year is better than last year. In 2017, Bareilly Ki Barfi (BKB) and Shubh Mangal Saavdhan (SMS) belonged to a similar space, and they worked despite that. This time, while AndhaDhun and Badhaai Ho are releasing in quick succession, they belong to distinct genres. As an actor, I’ve been a case study since the time I debuted with Vicky Donor. The film became a point of discussion, for the way it tackled a taboo subject; it made for good family viewing and also made great money. SMS and BKB released so close to each other and both did well at the box office. It doesn’t always happen to an actor. People don’t see two hits in such a short span.

It’s rare for an actor to have two consecutive hits in a span of 15 days. How much of a difference has that made to your career?
Commercial success drives the world I belong to. Your prowess as an actor comes later and that’s the rule. Your producers believe more in you when you’ve delivered hits. They invest in your film because they believe that there will be returns on it. The canvas becomes bigger, the film is mounted well. There’s a certain trust that’s built on commercial success.

Naseeruddin Shah had once said that although he worked in commercially successful films, it didn’t quite change the tide for him.
(Cuts in…) I think it’s the changing times. Actors like Rajkummar Rao, Vicky Kaushal and I are luckily working in the current phase of the industry. We’re fortunate to get the kind of work and enjoy the kind of faith we do. We’ve all had to work in the interim and make people believe in us. I’ve realised that if your films are working back-to-back, no one really questions you. You easily get cast in the next big film.

While you’ve seen consecutive hits, you’ve also been through a phase of back-to-back duds. Did you ever fear getting written off?
I think that was a superb learning curve for me. Success is a lousy teacher and failure is the best friend, philosopher and guide. It teaches you like none other. In that phase, I realised what was going wrong. The one-liners read great, but the scripts went wrong on some level. Maybe, the films weren’t promoted correctly. As an actor, you have to be invested in every department. Thankfully for me, 27 days after Hawaizaada, Dum Laga Ke Haisha released and everything was good. Fortunately, that gap between my duds and the hit was not too long, but I felt the jitters. Nautanki Saala, Bewakoofiyaan and Hawaizaada prove that you can only make choices. It taught me that your instinct is always right. A well-packaged project will always find takers. Did I fear getting written off back then? I’ve taken baby steps from theatre and radio to TV and then films. I am more fearless than actors who have catapulted to success instantly. I know I have the talent, and I will survive for sure. Having said that, being an actor was always my priority, and I am glad that I’ve made it so far.