Arjun Rampal: I lean more towards dystopian, issue-based and gritty stories

Arjun Rampal on playing a dysfunctional cop in London Files that touches on immigration, depression and parenting
Letty Mariam Abraham (MID-DAY; April 19, 2022)

A quick look at his career graph, and it’s easy to see Arjun Rampal’s fascination for complex roles. He assures that London Files is another addition to the list. The actor, who plays a dysfunctional cop in Voot Select’s upcoming series, says the role demanded considerable prep. Over to Rampal as he dissects why he was drawn to the series, and his evolution as an artiste.

Edited excerpts from the interview.

What was novel about the show that attracted you to it?
Om Singh is by far the most interesting character I have played in my career. He is a dysfunctional cop. The story highlights a lot of issues that people are facing. It depicts how parenting affects children today. What happens when the government suddenly passes the anti-immigration bill and takes away the rights of people who have migrated and been given citizenship in a foreign country? What happens when [countries] start shutting their borders? A lot of issues have been cleverly written in the show with the help of layered characters.

Do you gravitate towards intense roles over slice-of-life stories?
This is definitely a slice-of-life story [laughs]. Sometimes, you just attract certain things, and you say yes, hoping you can do the part. I love slice-of-life shows. If a good script comes along, I’ll do it. But right now, I lean more towards dystopian, issue-based and gritty stories.

Tell us about your prep for the character.
With London Files, I have spent a lot of time [with the core team] when [the script] was coming alive. A lot of contribution has come in [from the director, Sachin Pathak] on how to do a scene. We are showing a guy who worked in the London police force, so you cannot have the British chief talking in Hindi. So, we did those scenes in English. I haven’t done many English films, but I aspired to make it look real. You have to do a lot of workshops, and understand the world you portray to make it more real.

There are two types of actors — one who lives the part, and one who can switch on and off. Which one are you?
For me, it’s a combination of the two. You have to switch off at some point, or you will get exhausted. It is important to detach; it can give you new ideas about the character, but at the same time, I can’t completely switch off. I have to be in the zone. That is why I do one project at a time. Sometimes, it is difficult to switch off because the character stays with you. But as you start prepping for the next project, you let the earlier character go.

How do you feel you’ve evolved as an actor?
Sometimes, I feel on top of the world. Just when I start feeling that way, I go to the set and do a terrible scene [laughs]. There have been times in my career when I have done scenes on a superficial level. Now, I take every character and make it a part of me. It could also be [attributed to] being inexperienced and the choices I have made. [Earlier], I didn’t get parts that I could go deeper into. The choices I make today allow me to do that.

You are making your Telugu debut.
I am walking into the unknown. It is going to be [on the scale of] Pushpa, RRR, and Baahubali. I want to work in [the south industry]. The film stars Pawan Kalyan and I am playing a larger-than-life character. I’m nervous; I don’t know what to expect, but I am going out there to experience something.