"I have taken criticism on the chin from critics... I am not delusional." Arjun Kapoor talks to Brut about dealing with failure, trolling and the success of Singham Again.
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00:00I've been through enough sh** in life.
00:01What can a few comments and all do to me?
00:03It gives them a big high now to have us react.
00:06Like, look, I've passed a comment.
00:09I'm not a crybaby. I don't throw my toys out of the pram.
00:12Hi, this is Arjun Kapoor for Brood.
00:22I realised there's a misconception that got created about me.
00:25That I'm very, very grumpy, which I'm not.
00:27I just have droopy eyes and a deadpan face and I have sarcasm oozing out of me.
00:32So what tends to happen is sarcasm is normally very misunderstood
00:35because people rely a lot on expression.
00:37Sarcasm is not a very desi thing, if you see.
00:40The biggest misconception is that I'm intimidating.
00:43I'm not. I'm just a tall, big-built guy.
00:46I can't really cut my arms off now, can I?
00:48So, yeah, the smile helps, I think.
00:52I just make sure I make that 5% extra effort that goes a long way
00:55in disarming people and calming them down.
01:01Just to put perspective, our Indian cricket team, three months back,
01:04won us the World Cup.
01:05Unfortunately, there's been some results that have not gone our way
01:10and you see the kind of negativity and scrutiny that comes.
01:12It helps you gain perspective,
01:13where if they are not going to be able to get off the hook
01:16after three months of delivering,
01:18perhaps arguably one of the greatest sporting moments in our nation,
01:21then our daily negative scrutiny is just something that people now enjoy
01:24while they're having their morning coffee.
01:26We've allowed it because we also put ourselves more out there
01:29because of social media.
01:30The world is a far more cruel place, any which ways.
01:32And negativity does create more eyeballs.
01:35You have to still believe in yourself and not let all this affect you.
01:37It's not easy, of course, but that's where you need,
01:40like I said, an ecosystem to not allow you to get consumed by it.
01:44It's not that I've not been consumed by it,
01:46but I learned how to walk away from social media.
01:48I don't check social media as much as I should.
01:50I should be.
01:51I also don't let it affect me because I've been through enough ****
01:54life. I mean, what can this what can a few comments and all do to me?
01:59If you just look at what I've been through in life from
02:01from my parents separating at the age of 10 to losing a losing a mother
02:06at the age of 24, 25, I mean, my back has been broken.
02:11So what are you going to say or do where you you've not walked a step in my
02:15my shoes. So when you've fought through that
02:19at a very deep rooted emotional, personal level,
02:22you actually become a little forgiving about these guys
02:25who just want attention and create noise because they're trying to build their pages
02:29and they're trying to build their accounts and they want a few cackles.
02:32It gives them a big high now to have us react.
02:36Yeah, look, I made a comment, but they don't realize that's a reflection of them.
02:46Like you get a punch, you get back up and you go back and fight.
02:48It's like you're getting punched.
02:49You don't let you don't let it affect you.
02:50You're still in the you're still in the ring.
02:51Right. So I, for a long time, was just taking the punches and continue.
02:55I was not really processing and I was not really thinking my mental, physical,
02:59emotional, all sorts of health started suffering.
03:04It wasn't easy, obviously.
03:06Nobody enjoys suffering and nobody enjoys
03:10films not panning out because it's also we make films a lot of love
03:14and we want them to do well.
03:15We're not just we're not just phoning it in like people do feel that sometimes.
03:19And fair enough, because they're paying money.
03:22They're allowed to have their opinion.
03:23I'm not I'm not arguing with that.
03:25But set the shooting of the men that they come because we want to see some dividends.
03:30And what happens is a lot of it comes down to nowadays
03:33a lot of negativity and hostility coming to the fore because those things sell more.
03:38Right. You need to understand who the real critics are,
03:41who the real people are that are trying to indicate to you, listen,
03:43you need to do better work or you need to work on yourself
03:46versus people who are just screaming and shouting to get your attention
03:49and create and fester negativity instead of taking the punches and still standing.
03:53I said, OK, I'm just going to take a step back.
03:54I'm going to just process this.
03:56I'm going to just make sure that I'm aware.
03:57And I think it's very important when you're going through this in life.
04:01You don't need to isolate yourself.
04:02You need to be aware, but you need to also speak about it
04:05and you need to try and figure it out.
04:06You have people around you.
04:07I did therapy. I still do.
04:10And that's not to say that this was the only reason.
04:12I think it regulated me in dealing with a lot of things, even success today.
04:15I'll be able to deal with better.
04:21I'm quite honest and open and vulnerable about most things,
04:23so people know quite a lot that I've been through or I'm going through.
04:27I think I'm a fighter and I've never given up.
04:29And that's a quality that sometimes doesn't come through as an actor
04:32because I'm private.
04:33There's a lot of perception that I have not created,
04:36but gets created around the fact that I hail from this industry.
04:40I think I'm very, very proud of the fact that I've been able to stand on my two feet,
04:44make my career, not relied on anyone else to stand up on my own feet
04:50and do my own thing.
04:51I've lived my successes humbly and I've lived my failures humbly as well.
04:54I think it gets a bit lost sometimes with being known as somebody
04:59who's, like I said, part of this industry from his childhood.
05:01But if you contextualize it, when I made my debut,
05:05nobody knew me even one day before my trailer came out.
05:07I wasn't something that was flashed around the media
05:09as some hyped up star kid making their debut.
05:12Today, I get bunched in and generalized in that space.
05:16But I actually was an unknown quantity that Aditya Chopra auditioned and believed in.
05:21So I don't think it's about what they don't know.
05:24I think what happens is it sometimes narratives shift and you get generalized.
05:28I think I'm unique.
05:29My life story is a bit unique.
05:30I would always like people to know the fact that I've hung on
05:34and always done my thing.
05:35I've never ever...
05:38I'm not a cry baby.
05:39I don't throw my toys out of the pram.
05:41I've never made a big deal.
05:42I've always...
05:43Listen, I've taken criticism on the chin from critics.
05:46I'm the first person who's turned around and said
05:47I was going through a bad phase and I gave failures.
05:49I'm not delusional.
05:50So I think just the way I've dealt with life,
05:53it's nice to remind people once in a while that, you know, don't generalize me.
06:01I never had self-doubt of my capability.
06:02The doubt was, can I get this chance?
06:04The kind of opportunities I was getting, I was not able to really push myself.
06:08I think this just allowed me to be unhinged.
06:11Also, the point in my career where I wanted to really
06:14rekindle the spark of being on set and doing something
06:17drastically different rather than being kosher.
06:20I know playing the hero in a mainstream film can be a bit vanilla
06:23and it confines you to playing to the gallery because of your
06:27because of the character you're playing.
06:28This just allowed me that freedom.
06:30And it was a no holds barred, brute, aggressive, unhinged, chaotic man
06:36who has only one agenda on mind.
06:38So I've never done it to this extreme.
06:39So I said, you know what?
06:41If I have to, I might as well do it in one of the biggest franchises
06:43our countries ever produced and see what comes out of it.
06:45So, yeah, it turned out to be a good risk.
06:48It definitely was a risk.
06:49I could have really messed it up, but I didn't.
06:53From the audience reaction, it seems like they have really enjoyed me
06:56as this unhinged character called Angel Lanka.
06:58So I'm happy about that.