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‘After my first film, Bollywood didn’t know what to do with me’
In the last decade, actor Ayushmann Khurrana has emerged as someone who explores the unexplored via movies made on untouched topics. Whether it was his debut in 2012 with Vicky Donor , in which he played a sperm donor, or his subsequent roles as a man with erectile dysfunction in Shubh Mangal Saavdhan (2017), a character with premature balding in Bala (2019), and a gay man in Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan in 2020, the actor has been on a one-of-a-kind journey of breaking boundaries in Bollywood.
“My first project had to be really different since I knew I wouldn’t get a second shot because I wasn’t from the industry,” Khurrana recalls as he takes a journey down memory lane. However, after that Shoojit Sircar movie, which clocked 10 years of its release on April 20, Khurrana went into a dry spell, until resuming his path with the 2015 film Dum Laga Ke Haisha.
Ask him what happened in those three years, and he says, “After my first film, Bollywood didn’t know what to do with me. So I took on whatever came my way, and they weren’t successful. But Dum Laga Ke... changed everything for me again. The credit goes to all the writers for thinking outside the box.”
The 37-year-old, who has films such as Anek and
Doctor G in the pipeline, concludes, “It feels surreal when I look back. It has been a fairy tale journey.”
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VThe Yeh Hai Mohabbatein actor adds that he uses his evenings to work out during the fasting month. “I know I can’t workout during the day, so I have been working out in the evening since Ramzan started. I either go to the gym or for a walk, and I have been cycling at midnight. I am even following my diet,” he shares.
Sharing the wishes for Ramzan, the actor says, “Every
Ramzan, I wish for the same thing. I want my family to be happy and healthy. May Allah bless them with all things good. As for me, I wish I could get whatever Allah feels is good for me.”
Goni plans to travel to his hometown of Jammu later this month.“My mum and dad are going for umrah (pilgrimage), so I will go to Jammu before Eid,” he concludes.