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Bollywood is an unforgiving industry: Kunal Kemmu
Sangeeta Yadav
The year 2019 didn’t really turn out to be a satisfactory one for actor Kunal Kemmu, at least on the professional front. While the big-budget period drama Kalank failed to meet commercial expectations, the release of his comedy drama Lootcase was again postponed.
But the 36-year-old is looking forward to make 2020 count in all possible ways. He will be seen as a fierce cop in director Mohit Suri’s Malang that’s releasing soon. “After playing so many comic characters, when you get to do a serious part, it’s very exciting yet challenging. Malang will see me in a different avatar and it’s definitely going to be a good start of the year,” says the actor.
Kunal admits that a film’s failure does take a toll on an actor and affects future choices, too. “Things become tougher. But, the nature of the business is such and Bollywood is an unforgiving industry. There are times where you looked at films and said, ‘Oh I really loved my work but then didn’t it do well after its release.
You can’t go deep into that. Instead, you’ve to make peace with it. Every Friday, nobody knows what’s going to work and what’s not,” he says.
Kunal has experienced many highs and lows, being a part of films such as Kalyug (2005), Traffic Signal (2007), Go Goa Gone (2013) and the Golmaal franchise, and he asserts that he has stopped taking “failures seriously”.
“After experiencing successes, when the attention starts diminishing, you can’t get emotional. It’s a part of your life but it can’t become your life. Otherwise, you’re setting up yourself for destruction or an accident or even depression,” he explains.
Asked if he experienced depression of sorts because of the circumstances he faced, Kunal shares that there was a phase when his phone had stopped ringing. “We all celebrate the stars that are rising and it is very easy to shun them when they aren’t doing well. For me, success in this industry is to have chances to do the films you believe in. You just have to keep working and always learn from your mistakes.”