Aru is on a losing spree; shed 15 kilos

He has mostly done supporting roles and played the funny guy in films, but plus size modelturned-actor Aru K Verma is now looking to break that image. The actor, who has starred in films such as 2 States (2014), Befikre (2016) and Jab Harry Met Sejal (2017), is now on a weight loss spree, as he feels that getting fitter is the only way to have a long sustainable career in Bollywood.

“It’s high time, and I want to lose weight. It has been a while that I’ve been doing a certain kind of roles and characters. For me, to have a long sustainable film career, I need to be fit. Also, there’s a film project that I am doing, and I’ve been asked to lose weight

[for that],” shares Aru, who has already lost 15 kgs and wants to get fitter for the sake of his health. Aru, who has been working in the film industry for almost a decade now, feels that filmmakers in India tend to stereotype overweight actors unlike in the West, where despite being on the plus side, actors get good roles in movies.

“People here look at overweight people as the happy-go-lucky kinds, and even roles for such actors are written like that. It is the kind of category that has developed over the years. In Hollywood, actors like Jonah Hill and Chrissy Metz are getting such good roles and not doing something that is being laughed about,” he says.

However, Aru feels that the situation is looking up in Bollywood as directors have now started to look beyond the weight and giving meaningful roles to overweight actors. “In the last three to four years, the kind of directors I am meeting and working with are different,” he shares.

Aru K Verma says that people in the industry see overweight people as the happygolucky kinds; the actor costared with Shah Rukh Khan (inset) in the movie Jab Harry Met Sejal (2017)