Ayushmann Khurrana doesn’t believe in playing it safe. The actor challenges the status quo in his films, sprinkling some mainstream masala on issue-based cinema. The source has worked and his latest, Abhishek Kapoor’s Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui, There is a case. The film looks at how India treats the transgender community Khurana’s alpha boy Mannu is probably a stand-in for a large section of the population.
The actor admitted, “It was very important for me to play the character, that of a stereotypical alpha boy, who is dumb and clueless, as he represents the common man on the streets in India.” “How his emotional transformation takes place in the film is the crux of the film. I was born and brought up in Chandigarh, so I know the city and know the people. And I have done street theater and radio, so I know people who are like Mannu. My lifestyle has been very diverse, I was also part of a cricket team, so I have come in contact with people from all walks of life, and I have met people who are clueless and think that their physicality is above everything else. . Mannu comes from the same mindset. In fact, back in the days when I was in school and college, there was hardly any acceptance for the (LGBTQA+) community. But we all learn as we grow up. Then I moved to Mumbai for my first job, I interacted with the people of the community and my sympathy grew. Of course it was a gradual process, but now I am a different person altogether.”
Ayushmann, right from his first film (Vicky Donor), has been one such actor who chose content-driven films and stuck to it. Doesn’t he think it limits him as an actor and choice of films? The 37-year-old actor says it is natural for him to do films on risky subjects.
ayushman Said, “I think it will always be difficult. I started my film career with a risky subject. I have always been a risk taker, I have no other choice. And, finding great scripts is a lot. It is difficult, and difficult to find a script that is known to be a content script and still resonates with the public and has a wide reach.”
That being said, there are some experiments in the coming times. “My next one is an action film, it’s called Action Hero, and I’m learning MMA (mixed martial arts) for it and it’s going to be a big challenge for me because it’s a genre-breaker for me. Even That many are a genre-breaker even with Anubhav Sinha. So, anything that’s out of my comfort zone is challenging. Having said that, I won’t stop doing social comedies or dramas because that’s the core of my filmography. And, it is very important for me because I come from street play background which used to play on social issues, and it is just an extension of that personality.”
Revisiting his first choice, his first film – Vicky Donor – Ayushmann shared that he had rejected six films even before he entered films. “So what option did I have left?” The actor actually asks the matter.
Khurrana shared, “You will be surprised. I was a VJ (Video Jockey) at that time and I was getting a lot of offers as an actor, and I didn’t have six films before I debuted. Of course they weren’t big films, they were very vanilla themes and concepts with themes of death. So, I had the urge to do something different and pioneering. I wanted to take on concepts that weren’t explored. I am glad that Shoojit Sircar showed faith in me and came up with such an important subject, and turned it into a family film. It paved the way for me and I thought of how films are a great medium to accelerate social change and start conversations. ,
Emphasizing on the need for important subjects in films and yet for the masses, Ayushmann says, “If you are making a very specific film for an awakened audience then there will be no change. Change can happen only when you take that subject out of the purview of commercial cinema. Only that can change, otherwise it becomes an inside joke.”
Ayushmann further adds, “The kind of films that I have been waiting for are films that resist change because cinema plays a huge role in changing the society.”
Of his responsibilities, he said, “It feels great because no one thought that such films could be dramatized or garnered praise from audiences and critics alike. These were critically acclaimed films in those days. They used to be. Now they’ve become mainstream, and I think it’s a big win for this kind of cinema that we call ‘middle cinema’. They’re somewhere in the middle, it’s got a great theme, it’s Well executed and still has the trope of commercial films, and I think that’s why such films are called ‘middle of the road’ cinema.
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