This Saturday, Barun Sobti, a popular star from the Indian TV industry, will take the stage for the first time in the role of the narrator of the play Do Fool Char Maali, at Shaikh Rashid Auditorium, The Indian High School Dubai.
Sobti, who gained popularity as Arnav Singh Raizada of Star Plus’ hit show Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon (IPKKND), however, feels the stage is not the place for him.
“Not once in my life have I done theatre. Being on stage is not my thing,” said the 28-year-old actor. “This show happened when we were shooting for IPKKND. It was Akshay’s [Dogra] idea actually and Utkarshaji’s [Naik, Sobti’s co-stars in the serial]. They started talking about it and everyone there made a commitment. And, because I was there, I committed too”.
Today, Sobti is moving on to bigger and better things — the 70mm kinds. Though his first movie as a lead, Main Aur Mr Right, which was slated for release at the end of the month, has been postponed for a July release, he is already working on the second, 22 Yards. However, the actor feels there’s no difference working on television or on the big screen.
“For me the only difference is I get to be home a lot more. With TV I had to work everyday. Now, I’m not enormously busy, and have been picking and choosing whatever I’m doing. As an actor, I think the experience and the portrayal of the character is exactly the same. It doesn’t make any difference what camera is capturing it. You have to do it with the same passion”.
When in Dubai, Sobti will also be paying a surprise visit to a Pehla subscriber. His popularity can easily be gauged from the way his fans reacted when he announced his departure from IPKKND, which actually led to the ending of the show. Despite controversial reports of fans threatening self immolation and subsequent statements from the channel, producers and the actors of the show, Sobti maintains the only reason he wanted to leave was his health.
“I am a very simple guy. Of course popularity matters a lot but for me my health and family come first,” explains Sobti. “I had been spending a lot of time working and needed to spend some time at home and take care of my health. That’s the only reason why I left the show despite it being so popular.”
Or could it be the alleged roaring off-screen chemistry he shared with his co-star Sanaya Irani? Or was that a publicity stunt on the part of the show’s producers?
“One cannot forget that showbusiness also deals with humans. Everything is not so superficial that this is rigged or planned. Sometimes people do fall in love with each other because they spend a lot of time on the sets so much so the set becomes your first home and your actual home becomes your second home. But I don’t disagree, though it hasn’t happened to me [producers using on screen chemistry as a publicity stunt] people may do this for publicity also.
“See what happens — and I know I’ve been saying it in all my interviews so I’d probably be boring my viewers now — is you lose perspective if you’re working so hard every day. You can’t think straight, you can’t do new things. Basically the monotony hit me. That’s it”.
Sobti, who has played both negative and positive roles on television, finds the villain attractive.
“A role being meaty depends on how it’s written. Playing a villain in Dill Mill Gayye, I learned you can do whatever you want and the director’s more than happy to accommodate. But with the hero’s or the positive role come a lot of limitations. The hero won’t behave like this; the hero won’t sneeze like that — stuff of that sort. In our industry the men or boy actors have to be ‘hero-types’, if you know what I mean. They can’t be human beings. Where I am in life right now I just want to do good scripts and roles”.
