“I feel there’s a halo around me, a constant sunshine wherever I go.”
“Whenever a relationship doesn’t go on the right path, it affects me in some form, but it hasn’t spoilt anything for me.”
“Love is not complicated; people are, and that is changing the perception of love.”
“Good films not only help me grow as an actor but as a human being.”
“My job is to give my best, and where my journey would take me is something that I have left to God. I am not much of a planner; I am more of a doer.”
“I will keep working hard in future as well so that audience will keep showering their love upon me.”
“My father never got films to our dinner table. It was never the case with us as well that our father works in films, and we know so many actors. It was like him going to work like any other father. In fact, my school friends would ask me if I have met a certain actor, and I would tell them that I haven’t, which they found strange.”
“I unleashed my wilder side in ‘Manmarziyaan’ while playing the character, who is impulsive, colourful, does things without thinking too much.”
“The best thing is to enjoy the process that can lead you either to success or to failure.”
“Whatever understanding I have of filmmaking is because of my stint as an assistant director on ‘Gangs of Wasseypur.’”
“I think all my films have a different journey. Therefore, I take it as it comes.”
“Expectations don’t scare me because I have worked towards them. I want people to expect better things from me with every film. I never want to be in a position where they don’t expect anything from me. I want to be in a position where if they are expecting sun from me, at least I will be able to reach the moon.”
“My father said he will always support me but just not as an action director. It is a deal between both of us. He is an inspiration because he is a self-made man. I want to set that same example for my kids. I will fight it out.”
“On a film set, it’s important to be good at your work, but it’s also important to be a compassionate and understanding human being.”
“I am very happy that I am getting to play such layered and demanding characters. I feel blessed that directors are trusting me with such roles.”
“There are media houses which put headline with a question mark, and that is how they can get away without taking the accountability of the allegation. They put the question mark. Let’s analyze it a little – a common reader will not remember the question mark: they will remember the allegation.”
“It is probably the best validation, the best compliment: that when somebody says you are getting good things in life, and you deserve this.”
“Working with Anurag sir was always a dream. He is the person I started my journey with.”
“I did not have any inclination towards cinema. The atmosphere at home was not filmy, and we would never discuss anything related to films.”
“I was an industry kid but was never brought up like one.”
“When I am playing the protagonist of the film, before the release, I feel a certain pressure because I become the face of the film, then, and I have a major responsibility.”
“We tend to say that some films are made for multiplex audience and some for single-screen theatres.”
“I know that in Bollywood, there is this constant talk on which actor’s film is minting how much money, but we are living in a time where the focus is shifting from ‘actor’s responsibility’ to the result of a great team work. I believe filmmaking is about that.”
“When you take this journey of becoming an actor, there are only destinations – one, where people give you that limelight and expect the world from you, and two, they don’t know who you are, and they don’t care what you are doing. You have to choose where you want to go.”
“Anurag sir and I have had a beautiful journey as human beings.”
“When you get to work with a good director, an actor’s job gets reduced to half.”
“With every film, my confidence gets boosted; I feel motivated.”
“I will give my best to the job always.”
“When you get an opportunity to work in good films like ‘Raazi,’ it boosts your confidence to know that good filmmakers are willing to work with you.”
“’Raman Raghav’ will break my image of cute boy-next-door. My character in the film is mad, demented, very aggressive. He is a good cop but has his own issues.”
“I don’t judge director on the basis of their last film.”
“I don’t categorise cinema at all. If I am doing this, that means I am limiting myself.”
“Cinema is a director’s medium; it’s his story and his vision. If it’s a good story, people will connect to it.”
“I just want to grow as an actor and work with good directors.”
“When I told my father that I wanted to join the film industry, he asked me if I was sure about it, as acting is a very insecure profession. He also asked me if my reason to join the same profession like him was to have an easy road. I said no.”
“When I was growing up, my father never got his profession to the house. We didn’t discuss films on the dining table.”
“I wasn’t the star-obsessed person. I never wanted to meet stars at film sets.”
“’Raazi,’ for me, is a human story – it’s much more than just a spy thriller.”
“The only benefit of my dad being in the film industry was that I got a reality check right from the start. I wasn’t delusional and didn’t want to be an actor just for the glamour.”
“For me, the story must be the hero of the film. The screen space or the length of my role does not matter.”
“I aspire to be a part of a good story, because then, the actor will automatically shine through.”
“We are conditioned to believe that the hero is always a man, but it might not necessarily be so.”
“A hero could be anyone who does something heroic, irrespective of the gender.”
“’Race’ is one of the most successful film franchises in Bollywood. So I was really excited and honoured on being approached for the film. But since I was already committed to another film during the same time as the makers are planning to shoot ‘Race 3,’ things eventually didn’t work out, unfortunately.”
“Nobody can negate the fact that there is a section – not only in media but in every field – which indulge in wrong things.”
“At home, our focus has always been academics and playing.”
“The first time I ever went on set was during ‘Fiza’ when I was in Class X.”
“I was a huge fan of Hrithik Roshan.”
“I never pondered during my struggling phase that I should have become an engineer, as I knew that was not my life. I couldn’t have lived it. It would have been a very claustrophobic life.”
“I have seen my dad working with utmost sincerity and integrity, the sacrifices he made. I have also seen the rewards: if you give your best, you get your worth.”
“My dad has always inspired me.”
“Love hasn’t changed, and it never will, no matter what kind of a society we become.”
“I talk out of experience that relationships don’t get messy; it’s our heads that are messy. People’s expectations and beliefs screw up relationships.”
“My dad met my mom just once before their marriage.”
“The biggest validation comes from my parents, because they know me in and out.”
“I look for stories that are different because that is how I will grow as a performer.”
“Acting between action and cut is temporary. The result is permanent.”
“When I became an actor, I knew that there were only two ways of going about it – either I become an actor who has expectations, or the reverse of it.”
“Every character comes with its own challenges.”
“When you are given a character, there are times when you can relate to two out of 10 things of the character, and then there are times when you can relate to eight out of 10 things.”
“As an actor, if you want to explore something new inside you, you need to do something different that you don’t do in your regular life. You need to think in a different way. It is my duty to think like the character that I am given and believe in his mindset; only then I will be able to portray it.”
“I was just a regular kid who was interested in studying, playing cricket, and watching movies.”
“I was born in a 10×10 room of a chawl, and we shared a common bathroom with other people in the neighbourhood.”
“My dad battled various financial mishaps for years before achieving success as a stunt director, but my parents ensured that my brother and I knew all about the family’s struggle. We knew from where each piece of furniture came from.”
“However good an actor may be, he can’t make a scene believable on his own, so it has to be a team work.”
“I realise that film industry is a brittle and fragile world, but I’m ready to face it all because I’m too much in love with this space.”
“I can’t cook to save my life. I’m a disaster.”
“I am a tikka lover.”
“Life without paani puri isn’t life.”
“Every film has its own destiny, and everything happens for a reason.”
“I would want to believe that every film I do turns out to be the turning point of my career.”
“I don’t label films or actors, and labelling means setting boundaries. Why do you want to do that to art?”
“For me, a film is a film, and I just want to be part of good stories to grow as an actor.”
“It’s a reality that you get boxed and stereotyped, but I am not afraid of that. It’s my quest as an actor to explore different territories.”
“When people say I’ve become a star, it takes time to sink in.”
“I feel there’s a constant sense of happiness and gratefulness in me.”
“Subconsciously, there was always an actor inside me. But while growing up, it was a very normal childhood because my dad never got films to the dining table and never discussed films.”
“Me and my brother Sunny never had the enthusiasm of visiting a film set or going to a screening or attending parties and meeting actors.”
“Be it in school, society, or college, I just wanted to be on stage and used to love performing.”
“I feel lucky to be able to work with such great filmmakers on such wonderful stories.”
“’Zubaan’ is the first film I had signed as a lead. It was an opportunity I was waiting for, coming at a time when I was getting shortlisted for roles but was unable to make the final cut.”
“I was always active on stage – taking part in dance competitions, skits, and plays.”
“During my engineering days, we were taken for an industrial visit. I realised that I can’t do a regular job.”
“I believe a lot in energies, and I feel that everyone’s energies synced in ‘Masaan.’”
“People would be amazed that I’ve grown up in Bombay and not Banaras.”
“I don’t take very calculated decisions. I just follow my heart.”
“One rule which applies to every role is that you have to surrender yourself to the director with an empty slate.”
“I did engineering, and when people asked me my career plans, I used to say I would do an MBA.”
“As a kid, I grew up watching movies in the cinema, so that dream and charm will never die.”
“Giving auditions is a great exercise. They will provide you with a script, and you prepare in 10 minutes. And you perform in front of 100 other people.”
“My introduction into the film industry happened with ‘Masaan,’ which was a multi-star cast film. I was just a part of the film.”
“If I have done a role that’s taken me to a certain space emotionally, I won’t repeat that; I would rather do something now that taps into something else in my psyche… maybe something that makes me nervous.”
“It’s been a surreal journey for me since ‘Masaan.’ The way the industry has accepted me and motivated me has been amazing.”
“I always knew that I will have to find my own way in the industry. My father had told me that making a mark in Bollywood will be solely my fight.”
“Before becoming an action director in 1990, my father was a stunt man for about 8 years. During that time, he was body double to many actors in that era, one of them being Sanjay Dutt.”
“All I know is that I intend to do films which are different from each other, work with good directors and on great stories so that I get to grow as an actor. That’s my only attempt.”
“My father would schedule meetings over breakfast. Film-makers such as Rakesh Roshan and Prakash Jha have seen me as a child run around the house.”
“Films choose me; I don’t choose them.”
“I would like to take up any kind of film that comes my way if I find the story interesting and challenging.”
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