EXCLUSIVE | Netflix's The Ba***ds of Bollywood star Lakshya says he wasn't intimidated by big stars' cameos: 'I always felt I'm the star and...'

After impressing the audiences with his acting mettle and action avatar in Kill, Lakshya is set to entertain with Netflix’s latest web series The Ba***ds of Bollywood, which has released today and marks the directorial debut of Shah Rukh Khan’s Aryan Khan.

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost’s Lachmi Deb Roy, the talented and young actor spoke about reuniting with Raghav Juyal after Kill, sharing screen space with Bollywood celebs and other aspects.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

On gearing up for the release

Fully geared up. I just did my trials for the big day, and I am fully excited. I am choosing what to wear. And, I mean, most of us have sleepless nights. We’re not able to sleep or eat or think properly. And I think this is going to be the biggest moment that has ever happened to ever to any of us.

On reuniting with Raghav Juyal after Kill

It’s a lot of fun because I think, in Kill , of course, we were playing our characters. He was playing Mani and I was playing Amrit. We both were poles apart. But, off-screen, we were having as much fun as two boys from up north can have. So we did everything possible in our capacity and exactly what we translated in the show as well. And every time I work with this guy who’s an amazing actor, a crazy human being, very good human being and has a lot of heart. So working with him is always a pleasure, and, it doesn’t feel like work when you work with, Raghav. Similarly, same, experience I had on Kill. So, Very glad that, he played that part of my best friend in the show, and there’s nobody else who could have done what he has done on the show, honestly.

On Kill’s box office business and the conflict between theatrical and digital release?

I think that there’s no conflict as such. I have been to theaters, and I’ve seen Kill. I could see a lot of people sitting in a group, a lot of boys and men sitting and whistling and clapping on the scene. It it didn’t open that big. It opened to some Rs 1.3-1.4 crore and, eventually, it became a word-of-mouth thing, and, like, people were growing onto it. Of course, it’s not your Rs 100 crore or Rs 200 crore film. But, we garnered a lot of appreciation. We got a lot of love for it. And, being a newcomer, being like also was making a comeback after a long time. For us, that meant much more than a film that would do 100 crore. So that love, that appreciation, that acceptance, that validation that we were getting, that was more than, you know, a box office could offer at that point of time.

And, of course, digitally, probably because it is a very different kind of film. It was not the commercial cinema that you see. So, I think, digitally, probably because people, you know, found it more convenient to watch it at homes, and also, the film was R-rated. So it had a lot of limitations around it. But, I think, yeah, I mean, we did the best we could do with it.

Since there are cameos of some of the biggest Bollywood stars, were you intimidated by their presence?

I never felt that they are the stars. I always felt I’m the star and they are in my world, probably because of the character I was playing. I was playing Asman, and I thought, Oh! They’re in my world. I’m not in their world. So I feel it like that.

Upcoming projects

For now, it’s just The Ba***ds of Bollywood and Netflix. There are things done, but solely right now, it’s just The Ba***ds of Bollywood. My eyes are on and my heart is at.