Hindustan Times ST (Jaipur) - Hindustan Times (Jaipur) - City
What is Geet’s ex Anshuman up to?
As Jab We Met completes 10 years, Tarun Raj Arora spills the beans on life after ‘Anshuman’, the shooting days, and more
Actor Tarun Raj Arora made the audience dislike him with the perfect portrayal of his character Anshuman — the narcissist in Jab We Met (2007). As the film completes 10 years today, the actor reveals that he had just “opened a restaurant” when the movie was offered to him. “I worked very hard as a model but when it came to acting, I didn’t have a godfather and thus made some random choices. I didn’t know which film to select. Thus, I changed my profession and moved to hospitality. I went to Bangalore and opened a restaurant. That’s when Jab We Met came my way,” says Arora, who now owns two restaurants in Bangalore and Goa, respectively. Arora, who is now an established name in the southern film industry and has worked with actors such as Chiranjeevi and Shruti Haasan in films such as Khaidi No. 150, Kaththi Sandai (2016), and Katamarayudu, says that filmmaker Imtiaz Ali encouraged him a lot. “Imtiaz told me, ‘Tarun, Kareena and Shahid will always get work. But I will be truly successful when you get work after this film because I’ve selected you among thousands,” he says. Recalling the shooting days that also marked the end of real-life romance of Kareena Kapoor Khan and Shahid Kapoor, he says, “The tough time in their relationship did not affect the shooting, but I could see that things were a bit weird. When you have a couple on set, you expect them to be a little lovey-dovey and happy. There was an air of discomfort. They did not even joke with each other. But they didn’t let their personal equation affect their work.”