Actor Ayushmann Khurana remembers days when he was told to be wary of taboo topics

From a child artiste who excelled, to an actor who has been commended by none other than Amitabh Bachchan, Kunal has indeed come a long way

MY DAUGHTER TAUGHT ME TO BE A DAD. THAT’S A NEW ROLE. BEING NORMAL IS SUCH A BLESSING. THERE IS SO MUCH THAT WE TAKE FOR GRANTED. AN ACTOR’S LIFE HAS MANY UPS AND DOWNS. YOU NEED SOMETHING CONSTANT TO KEEP YOU SANE AND GROUNDED. RELATIONSHIPS ARE MOST IMPORTANT. INAAYA MADE US REALISE ALL THAT IF I EVER REACH A SITUATION WHERE I FEEL THE PRESSURE, I WON’T DO IT. THERE ARE TIMES WHEN YOU CAN UP THE ANTE. THAT’S ALWAYS ON MY MIND WHEN I AM PREPARING FOR A CHARACTER

When Mahesh Bhatt was filming Zakhm in 1998, he told this writer, “I can make this film without Ajay Devgn, but not without this boy.” Bhatt was referring to child artiste Kunal Khemu, son of actor Ravi Khemu. Kunal almost won the national award for the film — he was edged out by P Shwetha of Santosh Sivan’s Malli.

Kunal, who was first seen on screen 28 years ago in Bhatt’s Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke, has come a long way since then as an actor. He says that he doesn’t let the pressure of performance bog him down. “If I ever reach a situation where I feel the pressure, I won’t do it. There are times when you can up the ante. That’s always on my mind when I am preparing for a character,” he says. Khemu has had a dream run since the release of Malang which was really doing well when the pandemic struck. Two seasons of a performance-oriented role in Abhay also came up and then the long-delayed Lootcase was released, leading to many accolades including an appreciation letter from Amitabh Bachchan.

“It has been kind of bittersweet. All this happened when there was so much stress in the world. Personally, it has been great. People spoke about my role in Malang. Lootcase happened like a breath of fresh air on the OTT and you could hear all the chatter online and also through that amazing letter that Mr Bachchan sent me,” says Kunal.

He feels the film industry has a yardstick for measuring success through the box office. “If Lootcase did have a theatrical release, it may have done as well or perhaps not, we’ll never know. Unfortunately, the barometer is the box office collection. I don’t know what measuring success means on an OTT. But I can tell you it was a great confidencebooster for me as an actor and I got a lot of good work after that too.” He declined to give details, being contractually obliged not to do so.

Kunal has been shooting multiple projects simultaneously, something which he never did earlier. “I was shooting as Nandan for Lootcase and as Abdul for Kalank. One is a good guy and the other has grey shades. Ditto when I played a bad cop Michael in Malang and a principled uniformed man in the Abhay series. The character in Malang was conceived by writer Aseem Arora and director Mohit Suri and I had to understand the mechanics and then I played the part by adding my own touch to it after they had done all the groundwork,” he says. REAL LIFE ROLE Kunal has been enjoying the reallife role for a while now — playing dad to Inaaya Naumi. “That is the most important role and the most dedicated one,” smiles Kunal. “I am excited about it every single day. It is a learning curve for me because something new happens every day. “Because of the lockdown Inaaya got to spend time with both me and Soha together. She was the only ray of hope at home that kept us positive,” adds Kunal.

So what did Inaaya teach him? “She taught me to be a dad, I guess. That’s a new role. Being normal is such a blessing. There is so much that we take for granted. As an actor I do introspect a lot. An actor’s life has many ups and downs. You need something constant to keep you sane and grounded. So that gave me a reality check. Actors’ lives are built around a façade. Relationships are most important. Inaaya made us realise all that,” says Kunal.

Kunal and his wife Soha Ali Khan were to produce a film on noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani along with Ronnie Screwvala. But the lockdown seems to have given it a ‘tareekh pe tareekh!’ It was moving fast and then the lockdown stopped it all. It is in the works. But then the scripting needs to be bang on and the casting as well, as it is a very special project. We need to regroup,” he shares.