Over the past decade, he has built his career around rom-coms and feel-good comedies. But does it imply that Kartik Aaryan would be out of his depth in other genres? Hardly so. If the trailer is any indication, Dhamaka — a departure from his previous offerings — might be the perfect vehicle to showcase his acting prowess.

The actor admits his choices have undergone a shift in the past year, and Ram Madhvani’s directorial venture reflects that. “The lockdown gave me perspective on a lot of things. Because of the pandemic, I got that risk-taking ability. [Now], I want to do different stories. Dhamaka was an opportunity to explore something different. That change and that ability to take risks has come from within. It’s not that I don’t want to do rom-coms. I will do those too, but these are the stories that I am getting attracted to,” says Aaryan, adding that the audience’s palate too has changed in the past one-and-a-half years.

The taut thriller sees Aaryan’s news anchor Arjun Pathak battle between career and conscience as Mumbai is under attack. The Netflix film was shot in a span of 10 to 12 days in late 2020. Aaryan credits Madhvani for pulling off a film in the middle of the pandemic. “Arjun is not a vanilla character. It’s one of my most challenging roles, but it was a cakewalk because of Ram sir. He is a maverick director. The film is also designed differently — it was set in a small room with cameras all around, and I just had to act.” 

The Amruta Subhash and Mrunal Thakur-starrer is a remake of the South Korean film, The Terror Live (2013). Adapting a film in the OTT era may be considered a risky proposition — with the audience having access to the original movie, the remake may have little room for surprises or suspense. But Madhvani counters the idea. “How many times have you seen the Ramayana or [adaptations of] Shakespeare’s plays? Some stories are worth telling again. Adaptations also allow [the story] to reach a new generation. Of course, it also depends on whether the remake is good or bad.”