Tiger on fronting campus caper Student Of The Year 2 after string of action movies
Sonil Dedhia (MID-DAY; May 6, 2019)

In his five years in the industry, Tiger Shroff has quickly earned the image of an action star, courtesy his popular Baaghi franchise. Far from feeling pigeon-holed, the actor, on several occasions, has expressed how he considers himself fortunate to have created a mark. But he says that his next, Student Of The Year 2 (SOTY 2), is a deliberate effort to step out of his home turf.

“It will be nice to strip me off my powers,” smiles Shroff, well aware that he enjoys an advantage in his unmatched dancing and action skills. “In SOTY 2, I will be seen as a regular boy for a change. I will bleed when someone punches me and cry when someone bullies me. So, the idea was to break the stereotype that I am a one-man army and a killing machine, which has been my image in most previous outings.”

Even though SOTY 2 — like its first instalment featuring Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra — is a light-hearted campus caper, Shroff states that it has been peppered with a few action scenes to appease his fans. “My primary audience are the single-screen audience and kids. They love to see me do action and dance. I can’t detach from it completely. So, Punit [Malhotra, director] had to tailor certain things in the script, keeping my fans in mind.”

As he shoulders the film that marks the Bollywood debut of Tara Sutaria and Ananya Panday, the actor admits the pressure of box-office results weighs heavy on him. “I am completely alien to this world. It is something that Varun, Sidharth and Alia started with, and made successful. I am taking their legacy forward with Tara and Ananya. I surrendered myself completely to my director and producer. Unlike the Baaghi franchise, this isn’t my home ground. My last film [Baaghi 2] collected Rs 165 crore, so I am feeling the pressure of box-office numbers.”