Despite his filmy background Harsh Varrdhan Kapoor has struggled his way through work. The actor’s debut film, Mirzya (2016) directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, was expected to become a Box Office hit, considering it was an ‘art-house’ film. However, Mirziya saw a dramatic decline in the numbers, given the added pressure of being a commercial hit because of the names attached to it.
During a recent interview with ETimes, Harsh Varrdhan Kapoor shared that the perception around the film changed ‘since Anil Kapoor’s son was making his debut and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra was directing it.'
“Mirzya was an abstract musical. In the end, it was not a conventional film, so it cannot or is unlikely to get conventional results. I think it is my responsibility as a young actor to try different things. I am not here to repackage and rehash ideas. I don’t want to be a typical Bollywood hero. I will not pick up films only to move ahead. If I do a mainstream film, it will be by accident and not by choice. I am trying to chase excellence. If I do a film that ends up reaching a larger audience, I will be very happy. I would have done it organically then, instead of following a strategic master plan of becoming a star,” Harsh Varrdhan Kapoor said in a recent interview with a leading daily.
Harsh Varrdhan also spoke about his unconventional career choices and the kind of cinema he wants to be associated with.
He added, “The viewers, who are intelligent enough to understand my choices, loved me and my work. I am on a bit of a different journey and I don’t expect mainstream media to understand this. People are obsessed with the box office performance of a film, and it puts out a wrong message. This trend basically makes it harder for me to make the choices that I make. I find it a bit hypocritical and contradictory as there are people who say, ‘All you actors are doing the same films’, and then you have someone doing something different and all you can talk about is the box office numbers! I don’t get that.”
The 30-year-old actor had won appreciation for his second outing, Bhavesh Joshi Superhero. Harsh Varrdhan appeared in another Vikramaditya Motwane film, the Netflix mockumentary AK vs AK. He was recently seen in Spotlight, directed by Vasan Bala, as a part of the Netflix anthology series Ray. He will next be seen in the biopic of shooter Abhinav Bindra, with father Anil Kapoor.
Image Source: Instagram/harshvarrdhankapoor