Ankur Rathee who now stars alongside Kartik Aaryan in Shehzada, has always been the one to win hearts. May it be with his charming smile, or his strong character in his films and shows. Ankur who was last seen in Eternally Confused and Eager for Love, is now starring alongside Kartik and Kriti Sanon in Shehzada. We spoke to him about his experience filming the movie, and a lot more. Read on to find out!
We asked him how was it working alongside Kartik on this film, here’s what he had to say
It was really fun. He’s very friendly, and down to earth. We had a really great time, bonding and talking. It never felt like there was an actor, be it scenes or dance sequences. He and Kriti spent a lot of time chatting and gossiping. It was fun. Kartik was very kind and welcoming. I’ve been on set with other stars and they’re a lot more insecure. But Kartik is not like that at all.
We asked him to pick a favorite moment from the sets of Shehzada and this is what he picked
There is this scene that I do with Rajpal Yadav ji, it was my first time working with him. He is such a fun clown. He is always looking for an excuse to laugh and I had this scene where I had to run, you can see a little of this scene in the trailer. So he and Kartik are looking at me when I was doing that run and I did this weird movement and I improvised. And after they called cut, Kartik and Rajpal Ji just started cracking up, it was so funny and that ended up encouraging me to be goofier. And I just started coming up with sillier and sillier things to do, especially during that sequence where I’m running on the grass. The whole point of the scene was to show that my character Raj is not connected to reality. To show that, Rohit Dhawan and I kept coming up with fun ideas to gallop and skip across the grass. And afterward, Rajpal came up to me and said that you have that comedic sense and it comes very naturally to you. And to get that kind of compliment from such a comedy genius himself was a very special moment. I will never forget that.
We asked him how different his character Raj in Shehzada from his character in Thappad, and what sets the character apart
Very different, they’re different universes, that’s how different they are. My character from Thappad was very much grounded in reality and relationships that we’ve all experienced in our lives. Raj is not necessarily someone you and I have met before in our lives, he definitely a character that exists. That was a challenge for Rohit and me, in trying to bring this character to life. To make him spoilt, but not a brat. Raj is just spoilt. And he has a good heart, and he does not want to be spoilt. Through the course of the film, he has his own journey and growth, Kartik and I worked on how to give Raj that journey. We discussed how do we make Raj, go from being this spoilt person to what he becomes at the end of the film. How do we make that journey realistic. This performance style was very animated, it’s what we call in cinema – heightened reality. And doing that got me into a Jim Carrey kind of zone, which was very fun. One day David Dhawan Ji came on set and said I saw you in this film and you’ve played Raj’s character very well. Hearing that from David ji, was quite a compliment. I had no idea about this genre, and I give credit to my team.
We asked him to pick his favourite co-star, and this is who he picked!
I would say, Kriti. She has been such a breath of fresh air. I got to work with her right after Mimi was released. To work with an actress who was very commercial films and then she got to play the lead in a woman-centric film. And she did such a great job. To work with her was actually quite fun. The kind of love triangle the three of us find ourselves in allows a very cool dynamic. Talking to her about her career, our ambitions, and just the on-set experience with her was very fun. She also brings such great energy to our scene. The first time I met Kriti was quite funny, cause I just kept looking at her and then I said you are a lot taller than I thought you were. And then she started laughing, and that is when we hit it off!
Ankur, Kartik at at Kriti’s birthday bash with the rest of the Shehzada team…
As for his future projects, here’s where you can expect to see him next
I cannot really talk about most of them. But there are a few interesting ones, Undekhi Season 3 is on the books. We haven’t shot yet, but the audiences can surely expect another season.
I cannot wait to catch him in his upcoming projects, make sure you do too!