Arjun Mathur who will be seen in the upcoming Coffee Bloom talks about not having a godfather and his career choices
He has done a series of commercials with two of the biggest Khans in Bollywood, Aamir and Shah Rukh. He has assisted some big directors like Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra but Arjun Mathur and Shaad Ali. Yet, Arjun Mathur who made his acting debut with Mira Nair's short film and was a also a part of Karan Johar's My Name Is Khan is yet to find his big break. Says Arjun, "When I was an AD (Assistant Director) I had no plans of becoming an actor.
I had long hair and looked dishlevelled. It was only after I finished Rang De Basanti that I decided to become an actor." Arjun took a break, joined a gym to build his physique and do a course in acting.
When he returned to try his luck as an actor he approached Mehra and Aamir. "Aamir auditioned me for Delhi Belly and Rakesh tested me for Delhi 6 and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, but I guess the economics didn't work out because I was still raw then. I am sure I am somewhere in their mind and they will cast me if there's something suitable for me," shrugs the actor who then chose to take a different path.
He auditioned for Mira Nair's film on AIDS. "I had to play a Irrfan Khan's lover, a homosexual but initially they thought I will be too young for the role, but later they worked it out and I did it," says Arjun who later played a gay character in I Am. He was also cast by Farhan Akhtar in a short film about a father-son relationship and later Zoya Akthar gave him an important but small role in Luck By Chance. My Name Is Khan followed. "But I am just an embellishment in these films. Highly commercial films need big names and since I was new and did not have any big producer backing me or a godfather I started focussing on performance based films," reasons the actor who has done films like Fireflies, Barah Aana, Ankur Arora Murder Case and will now be seen in Coffee Bloom that has him in the lead role.
Ask him if he is bitter about the way things are in the industry and he philosophises, "Everything happens for a reason. I made my acting in 2008 and since then there have been many instances when I was in the running for big films, but lost out to a starkid. But this is the way it is, and one has to kee moving. Nobody can shake the ways the industry functions. However, at this point in time, there's so much scope and different kind of cinema happening that I am happy."
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