Arjun Kapoor on the price of stardom

Actor Arjun Kapoor has reminisced about his start in Bollywood ahead of his 34th birthday on June 26.

Kapoor, son of producer Boney Kapoor, has grown up seeing his family members face the glamorous side of the industry and the difficult too.

“Because I am from the profession as I grew up here, I always knew the pros and cons. I had seen it in my family beforehand. It’s a beautiful profession,” he said, adding: “I have never ever told anybody not to come and attempt it because the payoff is tremendous, and now more-so than ever when more than just your face, it’s about your talent.”

He rose to fame with his debut film ‘Ishaqzaade’, which released in 2012, and has played a variety of characters with movies ‘2 States’, ‘Finding Fanny’ and ‘India’s Most Wanted’. His next is historical drama, ‘Panipat’.

This, he says, has also given rise to a “big equality that is setting in”.

“It is becoming more and more available to people to come and pursue their dreams as long as they have talent and potential. So, it has definitely got a lot of pros but cons are they are for all to see,” added the actor, who is reportedly dating actress Malaika Arora.

Kapoor started working in the film industry as an assistant director on Nikkhil Advani’s ‘Kal Ho Naa Ho’ in 2003. He also assisted Advani on his next directorial ‘Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute to Love’ and worked as an associate producer on two of his father’s productions — ‘No Entry’ and ‘Wanted’.

Despite the difficulties of being a celebrity, the actor doesn’t want a pity party.

“Everyone who is an actor deals with the cons. Everyone gets the pros as well. So, I don’t like to create this martyr image that ‘poor me’. I am not the first and I would definitely wouldn’t be the last,” he added.

Over a short span of time, Kapoor has worked with renowned directors such as R Balki, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Raj Kumar Gupta, Abhishek Varman, Anees Bazmee, Homi Adajania, Ali Abbas Zafar and Mohit Suri.

“I have done ‘Finding Fanny’, ‘Aurangzeb’. ‘Ki & Ka’... As a director, R Balki sir is not the quintessential commercial filmmaker. For ‘Ki & Ka’, he chose a tone that is fun and frothy but that subject was again very offbeat — to play a boy who runs a home while his wife works.

“For me, these are themes that are relevant to society today, important for today’s India but at the same time they appealed to me and I thought they would make entertaining stories,” the actor said.