Of Ishwak: Instead bromance romance, I have
After doing rounds at international film festivals, actors Ishwak Singh and Aparshakti Khurana’s espionage thriller, Berlin, finally made its way to India and was recently showcased at Red Lorry Film Festival in Mumbai. Expressing his excitement over it, Singh says, “There are a lot of references in the film that our people will understand more than the diaspora or people overseas. There is a lot of nostalgia.”
Be it Paatal Lok (2020), Rocket Boys or Berlin, Singh’s biggest hits have mainly been two-hero projects. Remarking on this, he says, “Instead of romance, I have bromance. [For me,] it’s the story that matters. You can never be the only actor in a project. I believe in the phrase, ‘the more, the merrier’.”
Last year, Singh received the Best Actor award at the Stars Asian International Film Festival (SAIFF) for Berlin in Los Angeles, USA, which he calls “a pat on the back”.
However, he believes that international recognition is “slow gratification”. “It’s not like you will be bombarded with calls the next day. But, when I meet people who I want to work with, they are equally interested in working with me,” he shares.
From playing small roles in films like Veere Di Wedding (2018) to bagging lead roles, the actor feels his journey has been “very fulfilling”. “It was and is an uphill task, yet this is how I wanted it. It’s also probably because of the kind of role models I had; they have all been through this journey, even Shah Rukh Khan. If you’d asked me when I started, I would’ve said it was wishful thinking, but it happened. I wanted to start small and come up gradually,” he ends.