‘Ishaqzaade’ turns eight, Arjun says film gave him ‘self belief’

Mumbai, May 11 “Ishaqzaade”, Habib Faisals fascinating re-telling of the standard Romeo-Juliet lore with a wild spin, narrated the tumultuous love story of two rebellious smalltown youngsters. The film, which opened on May 11 in 2012, marked Arjun Kapoors debut, and also shot Parineeti Chopra into prominence with her first solo heroine role.

Looking back at his debut release, Arjun says doing the film gave him “self-belief” that, given the right opportunities, he could continue being a mainstream commercial hero.

“On the first-day of shooting, I told myself this can be the first day for the rest of my life if I get this right. And that’s what I just tried to do — work my hardest and take each day as it came and just deliver what Habib Sir wanted. When you are making a film you kind of become numb to the result, you just want to work hard every day and do your best in front of the camera,” said Arjun.

“But when I finished the film and when I finally saw it, it kind of hit me that I had the ability to hold my own in front of a camera,” said the actor, who is bigtime producer Boney Kapoor’s son. Her added: “This feeling did give me the self-belief that given the right opportunities, I would be able to continue being a mainstream commercial hero. At that point of time, self-belief was one thing that mattered the most for me and that’s what I got out of ‘Ishaqzaade’.”

He pointed out the film was not a traditional debut for a newcomer in Bollywood: “If you ask me, ‘Ishaqzaade’ was not a traditional debut. It was unconventional and that’s what worked. He was a guy who was real and believable because Parma Chauhan (Arjun’s character in the film) exists in society. There are men like him even today who do not know how to behave themselves and who believe they are above the system and the law till life happens to them, till reality hits them.”

Arjun added: “He’s a man who may not be somebody who can redeem himself but he still tries his best to get by life, tries to do the right thing by doing right by Zoya, who he eventually falls in love with.”