Arjun Kapoor’s portrayal of the chilling antagonist in the Rohit Shetty blockbuster Singham Again has given the actor new wings. Holding his own against the likes of Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar, Ranveer Singh, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Deepika Padukone, Arjun feels vindicated that his work in the film has been appreciated. A t2 chat with the actor.

Congratulations on the huge success of Singham Again and the positive reactions to your performance! How has life been since the release of the film?

My maasi saw the film on her birthday and she came out crying, feeling very happy. That resonated with me at an emotional level because it felt like my mom (Mona Kapoor) was very proud of me that day. Adi sir (Aditya Chopra), who is my mentor, messaged me. He is very honest and to get his approval and praise meant a lot.

Then there is the sheer volume of people who have reacted (to the performance). When people that are not from the movie business reach out, that means the film is connecting with the audience that it is meant for. We love appreciation from industry folks, family and friends, but it is always nice when people who don’t know you that well reach out to you.

What I love is people are calling me ‘Danger Lanka’ now. When your character’s name becomes a part of you, that means the character and the performance have both worked.

Singham Again is a huge franchise peopled with some of the biggest names in the business. At what point did you think your portrayal of Danger Lanka would be one of the highlights of the film?

Like you rightly said, the love for the franchise is unprecedented. The characters that Rohit Shetty has created — be it Simmba, Sooryavanshi or Singham — have been loved for years. I have always been a big Rohit Shetty fan and wanted to work with him. For me, it was a win-win, it was a tick mark on my bucket list.

But one can never be too confident about a film. You have to enjoy the process and you have to believe that the makers know their job. It is such a vast film... you are only one of the players in the game. You are not the person deciding things... you are just one of them doing your part.

I had heard the narration and got excited because I knew the kind of role I was getting to do. And the way Rohit sir had imagined the film using The Ramayana like a metaphor of the story playing out, would be really good fun for the audiences to watch, is what I thought.

I enjoyed shooting every scene because to be so unhinged was fun. Shooting my introduction was a blast. Doing the kidnapping of Sita (Avni, played by Kareena Kapoor Khan) was another great scene which I enjoyed. I don’t play a typical villain... my character is educated, street smart, talks in both English and Hindi fluently.... There is a nice duality to him... I had fun with that.

Apart from how he was written in the script, what did you do to make Danger Lanka who he is?

I was fundamentally clear that I had to trust my director implicitly with the material. That is because he was making a film that goes beyond my character alone. On my part, I didn’t want to play him like Raavan. I played Danger Lanka with his intent and his emotion. In his head, he is the hero... he thinks he is doing everything right. He is taking vengeance. It is like the axe forgets but the tree remembers. That was the only thing I kept in mind... that he is so hurt from what has happened (to his grandfather, played by Jackie Shroff).

I wanted to play him as a brute force of energy with a larger-than-life persona. The posturing of this character had to come across as intimidating. I owned the physicality of being this brute force.

Subconsciously or otherwise, did you have any references? Both Ranveer Singh and you are huge fans of ’80s and ’90s Bollywood and that era had a lot of larger-than-life villains...

There is not a single moment where Danger Lanka is an archetypal nemesis. There is a calmness even in the chaos that he creates. I never approached him from a reference point of view because that era is from a different audience perspective. We enjoy it as a reference of memory and nostalgia. In the contemporary space, you can be inspired but you don’t have to play the performance that way.

His getup is very raw... he is in this black kurta almost throughout the film. I didn’t need to play to the gallery at all. It was more about creating intensity and energy with my eyes. The scene with Ranveer and me is about two people sitting across and talking... it is not a hero and villain scene. There is a certain amount of posturing and he is trying to figure out who I am and I am figuring out who he is. The thrill does not come from a hero-villain dynamic... it is more about two powerful characters coming together and colliding.

What was the atmosphere on set like? The outtakes from a Rohit Shetty set are always hilarious!

It was a tough film to make. I am sure Rohit sir would have wished for a slightly easier shoot (laughs). He was really in the trenches because they had to shoot with all of us together at the same time. But for us as actors, it was empowering. It was great to see all the actors coming together and doing work together and not making it about themselves. Everybody was playing their part in allowing the film to be made.

It was also fun off-camera because I got to spend time with amazing people who I have looked up to. A different camaraderie is built when you all come together, know your roles and facilitate the film to be made.

Would it be fair to say that there is a pre-Singham Again Arjun Kapoor and a post-Singham Again Arjun Kapoor?

The audience has seen a new side of me as an actor with Singham Again. I won’t go as far as to say that there is a different Arjun. I am hoping the appreciation for Singham Again builds towards being offered interesting and exciting opportunities and having the conviction to pull them off. The idea is to use this as a benchmark for people to say: ‘Okay, he did that. Now let’s see what else he can do.’

Do you look at this appreciation as some sort of a vindication?

At the end of the day, you want people to enjoy what you want to tell. I was seeking that validation at this point in my career because I took a risk, I took a chance. Among my contemporaries, I am the first who has gone out and played an out-and-out antagonist. So I definitely wanted the validation; I will be lying if I said it didn’t matter. It has been a while since I felt such overwhelming love and adulation. That is what motivates us to come on set and work harder. The reconnect with the audience really mattered to me and I feel I will be able to select material now better versus jumping at the next available one.

Is there any other recent piece of work that has been creatively satisfying for you, even if it may not have got the love it deserved?

That would definitely be (Dibakar Banerjee’s) Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar. It was like that child that was a bit weak, it needed more love and care. It was perhaps the most exhausting experience of my life as an actor. It was very internal. I made a choice to work with a director who has the potential to tap into places in you as an actor that you didn’t know existed.

Perhaps the timing of the release, perhaps the way it happened during Covid didn’t allow it the platform it deserved. But it eventually got love on OTT. It was a very fulfilling experience in terms of making it. What feels unfulfilled is that if anybody wanted, before Singham Again, to see a different side to me, Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar was a great reference point for that.

There has been so much negative talk about your personal and professional life but one has never seen you being anything but positive. Where does that come from?

I have always been a slightly mature soul and a pretty sorted kid since I was very young. I saw some upheavals that gave me a sense of the reality of life and an understanding of everybody’s perspective. I learnt to see life from all points of view rather than being somebody who throws his toys out of the pram and cribs and complains about life. I have seen enough ups and downs to know that this is part and parcel of it.

It is never nice to be put in adversity but if you can rise above it, which I have done in the past at a personal level and a professional level, I know that I am capable of it.

My positivity also comes from my parents bringing me up a certain way. My mother was a very positive person, right till her dying day. My father (Boney Kapoor) has seen a lot and still been a very positive person. The culture around me has created the understanding that the darkest part of the night comes just before dawn.

As far as criticism is concerned, I demarcate between people who give feedback with the intent to help me do better and those who are doing so with the intent of getting personal and vindictive. One needs to have clarity on that.

When there is a certain understanding of life, one can’t let everything affect you. You have to separate yourself from all that noise and know your true self, which is what allows you to conduct yourself in a certain way, even through the adversity you are going through.