Interview: I was scared to shoot for Rock On, was under a lot of pressure – Purab Kohli

These days you are doing very selective work. Is your shift to London one of the reasons for this?

No, no, I visit India quite often. I spend a few months here every year. I have always been choosy about my work. I don’t do every work. I don’t work too much either. If I do one or two projects in a year, I feel that I have done enough work. I have small children, a family, so I try to spend as much time as possible with them, but the artist inside me, that child also has to be nourished. Therefore, I keep working, but my thinking is that if I am leaving my family, then that work should give me happiness. It is important for me that I feel as happy doing that work as I do at home.

The child (artist) inside you is now a young man of about 26 years. Your first show Hip Hip Hurray came 26 years ago. How much has he/she changed or grown in all these years?

It has grown a lot because when I started my career, I had no interest in acting. When Hip Hip Hurray was being made, they were looking for actors who had no experience. Who were completely new faces and I had nothing to do. I was doing a pilot course after college which I left midway, so to fill that empty time, I went for an audition and got selected. At that time, I had not thought at all that I would make it a career, that I would enjoy it, because at that time I used to get scared just by hearing the thought of speaking dialogues in front of the camera. I used to say don’t give me dialogues. I will stand behind. Then, after a year or two, I thought that friend, I am enjoying this, so why am I avoiding it? Why not work a little harder and do better. I became serious about this career after 3-4 years, when I saw My Brother Nikhil, then I felt that cinema can have such an impact. At the same time, now this artist has matured. I feel that my best performances are coming now. Earlier, whatever work I did, maybe I had good luck or the roles were good, I got good writers and directors, so I got them. Then I did many such roles, which I did not enjoy at all.

Do you remember any movie or character that you did not enjoy?

I remember it very well. When I played the role of KD in Rock On, I had no confidence that I would be able to do it. I did that film very scared. I was doing a big film for the first time. It was Farhan Akhtar-Ritesh Sidhwani’s film. I was a big fan of their Dil Chahta Hai, so it was a big opportunity for me. So, during its shooting I was under a lot of pressure that it is a big film, there are big people, it is a good role. After every shot, I used to look at Gattu (Abhishek Kapoor) to see if I did it right. I had no confidence in myself at all. When I think about it now, I feel that because of that pressure I did not enjoy doing KD at all.

You said that you are very attracted to the big screen, but these days you are continuously appearing only on OTT. Why is that so?

To be honest, I myself am missing the big screen a lot. I did a film last year, Blind, which was meant for the big screen but due to lockdown etc., it was released on OTT. Right now I have three more films which will be released in the next 12 to 18 months. The plan is to bring all three to the big screen, but let’s see what happens. Nothing can be said these days.

How do your kids Inaaya and Osian react to seeing you on screen? Do they know that their father is an actor?

Actually, they haven’t seen much of my work. I tried to show Rock On a year and a half ago but after the first song itself, they said stop this, put on a cartoon (laughs). Maybe I should try again but they know that Papa is an actor. Both the kids have been coming to my sets. When we were shooting for Rock On 2 in 2016, my daughter was just six months old, she has been coming to the shoot since then. They were with me in Ooty for three months on the sets of Out of Love. Even at home, I make small videos with them so they know what is happening but they haven’t seen much of my work.