Arjun Kapoor, Aditya Chopra, Ishaqzaade
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Actor Arjun Kapoor made his big Bollywood debut with Yash Raj Films’ Ishaqzaade alongside Parineeti Chopra. The actor gained utmost love and appreciation for playing a notorious goon in the film. But did you know that the producer of the film, Aditya Chopra once thought that he would not make it as the main lead after seeing his portfolio? That’s right! Recalling the time, Arjun revealed that he did not get a call from YRF but in fact had to go through an audition for bagging Ishaqzaade.

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In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Bubble, Arjun revealed that the decision to be an actor motivated him to lose weight and work on himself. The Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar actor mentioned that Shanno Sharma (casting director of YRF) saw his photos on Facebook and she took him on board and showed his photos to Adi (Aditya Chopra) who was not very impressed. Arjun told us, “He (Aditya) said ‘I don’t think he can make it as a main lead,’ Shannon said ‘okay you lose a little more weight, work a little harder let’s do some workshops let’s do some work and let’s go back to him with an audition’, which we did, he was very happy with the audition because she kept the tape on throughout the audition so she never paused so even in between the takes I was doing masti and I was talking rubbish and I was doing chichorapan. Adi sir are actually like the in-betweens more than the actual performance and that’s what drew me into YRF. I was supposed to do a film called Virus Diwan earlier jo announced ho gayi thi and then one day I was told okay come meet Habib Faizal who made Do Dooni Char and Habib sir and we met and I said wow, this seems like a great film, Ishaqzaade, it was called Tevar that time.

 

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Arjun Kapoor further added, “I went and met Adi sir, he said wow it sounds damn good he said now go and audition. I had to re-audition after being part of YRF for Ishaqzaade and that took about six months so that’s where the hard work was and this room where I’m sitting right now is where I’ve done some of the workshops in this room the room next door upar, it’s been surreal to sit after 10 years and talk about it but at that point of time the hard work the major hard work was what Habib have put in with me and Adi said to put in with me to break Arjun and make Parma because I’m not from the heartland, I’m not from UP, I’ve not understood that life because I’ve not lived it. At the age of 25, I had to live that life and understand the psyche and be the physical part so I think that was the hardest working part, the acceptance to getting a film didn’t hit me only till I started working ki ye film ke liye itni acting karni padegi kyuki ye role toh bohot hi parey hai. That was the big journey but it paid off because when I saw Ishaqzaade I was like okay that’s not Arjun Kapoor for sure that’s Parma.

Also read: EXCLUSIVE: Arjun Kapoor revisits his first day on the sets of Ishaqzaade