After giving life to hero ka dost in innumerable movies and doing justice to each one, Aparshakti Khurana is finally ready with a movie in the lead role. While one would be waiting for this moment all this while and Khurana is elated just as much, what’s surprising is him driving equal satisfaction in the space of a supporting character, without getting bogged down with the fear of being typecast. In a no-filter chat, Khurana indulged us in his films, music and personal life. Excerpts:
You began with Sanjeev Sharma’s Saat Uchakkey and, since then, you have mostly played a hero ka dost. Are you afraid of getting typecasted?
A couple of months ago, I met somebody at the airport who had come to take a selfie and said, "Aapne jo hero ke dost do respect di hai na woh aaj tak kisi ne nai di (No one has brought the kind of respect to the role of playing the hero’s friend like you have…"
That made me really happy. For me, there is nothing like being typecast. It is either a good film or bad film, good content or bad content… when you do bad content, you get typecast. When you do good films, you are always in your zone. And, you must capture that zone!
Tell us about your upcoming film, Helmet.
It is a really nice, happy, family film on the subject of condom. It highlights how, even in today’s day and age where we have a strong education system, going to a medical store and asking for a pack of condoms makes a lot of people uncomfortable. Apart from me, it features Pranutan, who is absolutely amazing and Abhishek Banerjee and Abhishek Verma. I think we were a really good team and have executed what was written on the paper well.
When did the music bug bite you? Who were your early influences?
During our growing up years, my father used to play the flute, I used to play the guitar, bhaiya (Ayushmann) used to play the harmonium, we would all sit and jam. So, music started that time but none of us has taken any sort of training and this is something that comes out of sheer passion and it just got polished over time.
I have always listened to Punjabi music, especially folk, and I am a big fan of Gurdas Maan, Malkit Singh and Surjit Bindrakhia. It is perhaps why all the song that I write are in Punjabi.
Lockdown diaries?
I am doing a little bit of cooking. Cuckoo (his wife Aakriti Ahuja) also enjoys me entering the kitchen and cooking together.