Taking a trip down memory lane, actor Ayushmann Khurrana, who started his showbiz journey with a reality show followed by hosting gigs on TV as well as an RJ, tells us that he made sure that his entry in Bollywood was with a solid film.
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) 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. I knew that I would never get a second chance since I was not from the industry. In fact, I had said no to six projects before Vicky Donor. I learnt from the mistakes of others and I was pretty sure that,” Khurrana recalls, as he takes a journey down memory lane.
Taking a trip down the memory lane, the actor, who started his showbiz journey with a reality show followed by hosting gigs on TV as well as an RJ, tells us that he made sure that his entry in Bollywood was with a solid film.
But he reveals that he was extremely confident about the Shoojit Sircar-directed film right the beginning. In fact the film went on to win the Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment at the 60th National Film Awards.
“I knew that Shoojit Sircar was a credible name, so I thought the film would standout. But I felt that it would be a critical success and the commercial success was just very overwhelming,” he adds.
However, after that 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.
Asked him what happened in those three years, and he says, “After my first film Bollywood didn’t know what to do with me because the film was such an unconventional subject. Post that such films were not being offered. But I had to choose something and I chose from what I was getting. I just did one film a year and they were not successful. So when Dum Laga Ke Haisha was offered to me, I was most excited. It changed everything for me again. It was a lifeline for me and it gave me another lease of life. From there on it has been good and the credit goes to all the writers for thinking outside the box. That really helped me because I always knew that I have to tread an unconventional journey.”
In these past 10 years , Khurrana has indeed pushed the boundary with each film and characters he has portrayed.
“I have grown up. I have witnessed so much in life,” says the actor, who has films like Ankek, Doctor G in the pipeline, “It is unbelievable. If I look back at my journey now, it has been fruitful. The universe has been kind, met some amazing people. It feels very surreal when I look back now. I started as a reality show contestant, RJ then TV host and then films happened. It has been a fairy tale.”
