Interview: I was scared, under a lot of pressure while shooting for Rock On – Purab Kohli

These days you are doing very selective work. Is your shift to London one of the reasons for this?

No, no, I often visit India. I spend a few months here every year. I have always been choosy about my work. I don't do everything. I don't work too much either. If I do one or two projects a year, I feel I have done enough work. I have small children, family, so I try to spend as much time as possible with them, but I also have to nurture the artist inside me. So I keep working, but my thinking is that if I am leaving my family, then that work should give me happiness. It is important for me that I am as happy doing that work as I am at home.

The child (artist) inside you is now a young man of about 26 years. Your first show Hip Hip Hurray came 26 years ago. How much has he changed or grown in all these years?

It has gone a long way because when I started my career, I had no interest in acting. When Hip Hip Hurray was being made, they were looking for actors who had no experience. Who were absolutely fresh faces and I had nothing to do. I was doing a pilot course after college, which I left midway, so to fill that empty time, I went for an audition and got selected. At that time, I did not think at all that I would make it my career, that I would enjoy it, because at that time I would get scared just thinking about speaking dialogues in front of the camera. I used to say don't give me dialogues. I will stand back. Then, after a year or two I thought yaar, I am enjoying it, so why am I avoiding it? Why not work a little harder and do better. I got serious about this career after 3-4 years, when I saw My Brother Nikhil, then I felt that cinema can make such an impact. Now this artist has matured. I feel that my best performance is coming now. Whatever work I did earlier, maybe I was lucky or the roles were good, I got good writers and directors, that's why I got them. Then I did many such roles which I did not like at all.

Do you remember any movie or character that you didn't like?

I remember it very well. When I played the role of KD in Rock On, I had no confidence that I would be able to do it. I did that film with a lot of fear. This was my first time doing a big film. It was Farhan Akhtar-Ritesh Sidhwani's film. I was a big fan of their film Dil Chahta Hai, so it was a big opportunity for me. So during its shooting, there was a lot of pressure on me that this is a big film, there are big people, it is a good role. After every shot, I used to look at Gattu (Abhishek Kapoor) to see if I did it right or not. I had no confidence in myself at all. When I think about it now, I feel that because of that pressure, I did not enjoy doing KD at all.

You said that you are very attracted towards the big screen, but these days you are continuously seen on OTT, why is that?

To be honest, I myself am missing the big screen a lot. Last year I did a film called Blind, which was meant for the big screen but got released on OTT due to lockdown etc. Right now I have three more films which will be released in the next 12 to 18 months. There are plans to bring all three to the big screen, but let's see what happens. Nothing can be said these days.

How do your kids Inaaya and Osian react to seeing you on screen? Do they know that their father is an actor?

Actually, they haven't seen much of my work. I tried to show Rock On a year and a half ago but after the first song itself they said stop it, put on a cartoon (laughs). Maybe I should try again but they know that Papa is an actor. Both the kids have been coming to my sets. When we were shooting for Rock On 2 in 2016, my daughter was just six months old, since then she has been coming to the shoot. They were with me in Ooty on the sets of Out of Love for three months. Even at home, I make small videos with them so that they know what's happening but they haven't seen much of my work.