Aditya Roy Kapur on playing action hero in Rashtra Kavach Om: 'It’s a physically gruelling film'

After playing a stand-up comic and voice artist in Anurag Basu ’s Ludo , Aditya Roy Kapur is a ‘one-man army’ in action flick Rashtra Kavach Om (KVO). For the first time, Kapur, who plays a commando on a mission in KVO will be seen holding blazing guns, doing fiery stunts, and someone who grew up as an action-film fanatic watching Terminator 2 , Demolition Man , Rocky , the action streak in his upcoming film is something he completely identifies with. Kapur debuted with London Dreams and went on to play supporting roles in Action Replayy , Guzaarish but had his breakthrough with Aashiqui 2 his biggest success as a solo lead, in 2013, where he played a singing superstar battling alcoholism. This was closely followed by the highest-grossing multi-starrer Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani in which he had a supporting yet significant role. The actor with a laid-back vibe is now raring to go, he will be next seen in The Night Manager adaptation, and Tamil hit Thadam remake Gumraah. “I am a little laidback when it comes to PR and paparazzi but not with the work; I am very focused and driven …” says the charming actor in an exclusive interview with Firstpost.

We saw some glimpses of you doing action in Malang and now you are playing an action hero …

Yes, Malang also had some action but it was more challenging for me here in Rashtra Kavach Om because there is a lot more action and the director (debutant Kapil Verma) was very clear from the very beginning that he wanted me to do all of it. It makes a big difference when the actor himself does it. It’s a welcome challenge because I have wanted to do action for the longest time. For me it was important to train for it, so I did about four months of training to feel confident when I was on the set. The grammar of action in Om is different and the director and producer Ahmed Khan wanted it to feel very raw and realistic. Now I have shed the body fat but I was very bulked up for the character that I am playing. It had to look convincing that I could fight all these guys at one time. That is the part of the genre for me as well so I took it on as a welcome challenge.

You’re attempting an all-out actioner for the first time, how challenging was it?

It was a physical thing that was challenging, it required physicality, and it required something to be maintained for a longer period of time. It was a very physically gruelling film to do and that when you are low on water, low on salt, low on food and you have to act in scenes and look fresh faced and be all there…Sometimes it is a challenge to not go overboard so that you don’t look like you are completely gone on screen. It was something that I was attempting for the first time even though you are well prepared you never know till you go and do it. But it was something that I was excited about and those good nerves drive you to work harder.

How did you approach your role as a Special Forces soldier?

It was trying to understand the character; all the clues are always there in the script itself. With this role, yes, there was obviously a physical aspect to it and that is something I was clear about how I wanted to approach. But it was also about trying to understand the mind of someone who puts his life and everything on the line and that something one has to try and understand because one hasn’t taken that path and there lies the fun in acting. There are certain experiences that you have lived through and you can draw from but in a lot of instances there is a certain amount of imagination required; you try and perceive as much as you can about something. My dad was in the army, I grew up on all his stories with an understanding and what it is like to be in that environment. Innately that definitely helped in forming my perception of how to approach this role.

This is Kapil Verma’s directorial feature debut and he is helming a film mounted on a big scale, so how did the confidence come in that he can pull it off?

Once I met him…of course, he comes from a great lineage of action and he has worked on the technical side for so long shooting action that I felt it would come as second nature to him. What struck me about him was when I saw the driving force of why he wanted to make the film …it was the story while other things were secondary and that is what made me feel confident about him. That is the right way to look at things. Story needs to engage you and action should be the icing on the cake. Even during the shooting that was paramount, he was completely in control of the story that he wanted to tell.

You have seen phenomenal success with Aashiqui 2 which was about a decade ago and you must have expected more success… how do you look at your journey since then?

It has been a journey that I have thoroughly enjoyed. There have been some ups and downs and I guess that is the way it is for an actor. It is an unpredictable profession that you are in; you never know what is going to happen on that Friday. I consider myself lucky to have found what I am passionate about. I love what I do, I love being on set, it is one of the happiest places I am in my life. I have learnt a lot from my success and failures and I look forward to more of this roller coaster because the second you think that everything is fine life surprises you, so I look at my career not from the time I gave a big hit but from the time I started out back in 2004. It has been 18 years and I was a VJ then and at that time I never even thought I would become an actor. If you ask those who were working with me they would say, ‘Chance hi nahi hai, how is he going to become an actor?’ By the time my third film was released I figured that this is what I want to do. Then I chanced upon that success, so it has been a journey of me finding what I love doing but now I am completely settled into it and looking forward to more twists and turns. Then I didn’t want to become an actor but as I kept doing I fell in love with acting.

What are your criteria of selecting scripts?

Obviously, you want to know what your role is but the first thing that comes to my mind is what the story is. I read the film as an audience, watching an entire film in its totality and if that is something that excites and resonates with you that is the first marker. Then of course what the role is because if it is something that you have done before then even though it is a good story you might not want to do it. It has to be something that gets you excited and you are passionate to do. It should challenge and push you, so obviously the role comes after that and then it is who the director is and what his vision is. At the end of the day it is the director’s medium so you have to completely buy into their vision.

What is your take on the current scenario where South industry has been attracting more footfalls to the theatres than Bollywood? Or do you think we are getting too analytical?

I feel that the audience is watching and gaining a lot as we are exposed to films from all around our country and you hear people from our industry saying don’t call it Hindi cinema, call it Indian cinema. That is the fact because it is something to be proud of, be happy about because we get to see so many great films and there is more work for everyone. So I look at it in a positive way, it is great that South films are working and I am sure there have been phases all over where there have been lulls and rouse. We get analytical about everything, everyone has got something to say about everything, so it is just the way things are now.

I would love to do more comedies, I enjoyed Ludo, that was a fun character. You have said you don’t want to limit yourself to only one genre, but do a variety of roles … to play. I am also doing something for OTT and I will be announcing that soon. That is another space that has so much potential for different stories to be told. It is a great time to be an actor; it is a great time to be making films for all involved. Then I also want to work with so many directors, there are so many young, new, exciting directors that we have today.

For a long time, you were not on social media and now that you are on it how do you handle especially the trolls and bullies?

I don’t read only (laughs). If you are not aware it doesn’t matter. Now I am on social media but I am not very active on it. I like being on it because it is a way for me to post something whenever I feel like but I don’t feel the pressure to be regular with it. But it is great that you can interact with your fans, social media has many positive things about it and I am glad that I am on it now but I am going to stay as consistent as I am.

You are perceived to be someone with an easy-going, laidback attitude…has anything changed?

When I am working and that is something I love doing, it is there that I don’t need any external force to motivate me. So while from the outside it might feel that one is laidback, the work is what I love, work is what drives me and I am very focused and driven to do my work. But yes, for things like PR, paparazzi…those are the areas maybe I need motivation (laughs), it is there that I am a little laidback but not with the work.

Bank-rolled by Zee Studios and Ahmed Khan and co-starring Jackie Shroff , Sanjana Sanghi , Ashutosh Rana and Prakash Raj , Rashtra Kavach Om will hit theatres on July 1.

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