‘Dangal gave me a household name, but it wasn’t my turning point’

Actor Aparshakti Khurana, who rose to the fame with the Bollywood film Dangal, reveals to The Pioneer in an exclusive chat that though the film has put him on the map, but it was not the turning point in his life.

Tejal Sinha

Actor Aparshakti Khurana has managed to tickle the funny bone with his comic characters in films like Dangal, Luka Chupi, Stree, and Badrinath Ki Dulhania, among many others.
In an exclusive conversation with The Pioneer, the Dhokha Round D Corner actor opens up about the contrary belief that the Aamir Khan starrer Dangal was the turning point in his life.

It’s not something new to us that it was through Dangal, many people got to know him as an actor, who can make us laugh our stomach’s out. A lesser-known fact is that Apar had already made his debut in the industry with Manoj Bajpayee’s Saath Uchakkey in 2016, prior to Dangal. It was always believed that the Aamir Khan starrer was a turning point in his life, but that was not the case.

Revealing the actual turning point in his life, the Luka Chuppi actor says, “All the films that you do are your babies, but having said that, Dangal is something that put me on the map, so that definitely kind of stayed with me. But when it comes to the turning point, a lot of people tell and ask me that was Dangal, the turning point in my life. I would rather say Dangal has put me on the map; it has given me a household name. People got to know me; they knew there is this actor who does comedy and who can do all these things. But according to me, the turning point in my life was when I left my law practice at the Delhi High Court and joined a radio station. It was only then that work never seemed like work.”

With the type of films that he does or the type of character he plays, we wondered if he is also one of those, actors who consciously choose a project. He says, “Initially, there were days when I started doing theatre and radio, and I used to plan a lot on what and how I would do things. But I think it’s almost 7-8 years since I stopped doing that. After that, my personal and professional graphs improved. I don’t want to go back to the planning stage. There are beautiful scripts and songs that are coming my way. Then there are a lot of hosting opportunities in the current scheme of things, so I want to keep my hands full with all these things, working with happy people and the world, and trying to make the best out of my life.”