Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; April 9, 2019)

While the trailer of director Abhishek Varman’s Kalank has been garnering positive feedback, what hasn’t gone unnoticed is actor Kunal Kemmu’s presence. From the look of it, he seems to be the bad guy in the love story, featuring Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sonakshi Sinha, Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt. When BT spoke to him, the actor spilled some beans...

You turned out to be a surprise element in the trailer of Kalank...
Yes, that was the plan. It’s an interesting part, something that I haven’t played before. I was excited about the film, and also the fact that it was a huge canvas with a stellar cast. I could have never said a ‘no’ to it. Today, it’s really exciting to get positive feedback for the part.

The trailer makes you look like the bad guy...
From the trailer, he may look like that, but he’s not. There’s a lot more to him. Those portions come at a strategic point in the narrative. Abdul’s look and the character’s graph are amazing.

Was the role emotionally draining for you, especially because the last few of your films have been light-hearted comedies?
No, it wasn’t. It was actually exciting because I started off with intense films like Kalyug and Traffic Signal. Go Goa Gone and Golmaal did take me into the comic space. But when I read Abdul’s part, I felt he had a dramatic curve and that it gave me a chance to go back to what I had started out with – intense roles.

Again, it’s evident from the trailer that most of your scenes are with Varun Dhawan. How did you guys break the ice, given that you both belong to different generations as artistes?
We didn’t have to really break the ice. I had known Varun socially. He’s honest to his craft and I enjoyed all the scenes we did together. We discussed scenes in detail. He’s a fun guy to hang around with. So, with him, sometimes, you don’t realise that in a few moments, you’re about to shoot something very serious. Also, he can easily become an agony aunt. Though we have known each other for quite some time now, we have a lot that we can chat about now.

What about Aditya Roy Kapur and Alia Bhatt?
Most of my scenes are with Varun, so I hung out with Alia and Aditya along with Varun post shoot. Alia has proven her merit as an artiste; she’s fabulous. Aditya and I are now working on Malang, so being acquainted is coming in handy.

What next?
I wouldn’t say there are things in the pipeline, because we stopped using that phrase a long time ago. There’s a dark comedy and Malang, and we are hoping to start Go Goa Gone sequel soon.