Actor Karan Kundra recently said it was a challenging task to portray all the shades of his character in Inspire Film’s new series Tere Ishq Mein Ghayal.

“Veer Oberoi is a challenging character because it can easily slip into the caricaturish zone. When someone plays a negative role, they end up making it an all-black antagonist, but that’s not real. There is no Mogambo in real life, neither are there absolute good guys,” he said.

“Veer has his own standard of good and bad, he does not care about what people think of him. He is unapologetic and intense. It becomes difficult to make such a character rooted to reality, which is what I am trying to do,” he added.

Asked if he had any reservations about joining the show, Karan said he had initially thought he would not be able to do justice to the role due to the hectic schedules of TV shows. “When I heard the storyline and character brief, I was excited. I, however, didn’t think I would be able to do justice to the hectic schedules that come with TV shows because over the past few years, I have gotten used to shooting for finite series for OTT platforms. But what is life without a bit of challenge?”

Admitting that the show has certain resemblances with supernatural drama The Vampire Diaries, Karan said he had long been a big fan of the American show. “It is obvious, and I am a big fan of the show and Ian Somerhalder. I was worried that I would copy him. Having said that, if we had made an exact copy of The Vampire Diaries, why would anyone have watched us? Fantasy supernatural shows are a limited genre. When we think of the genre, we immediately think of Twilight, Dracula or The Vampire Diaries. For instance, if you talk about two brothers and their mother, one immediately thinks of Karan Arjun (1995) or Deewaar (1975). For me, as long as the audiences are drawn to watching the show, it is worth it,” he explained.

“During certain scenes, I felt I am emulating Ian Somerhalder and then it would strike me to portray the scene in my own way. Do you know the amount of pressure on me right now? Before other people can, I have put myself under pressure. Sometimes, when I do certain scenes in romantic shows, the director says, ‘Tere andar ka Shah Rukh bahar aa gaya.’ And then I offer to do another take. As an actor, you have to keep ensuring that you bring your own touch to the character,” the actor added.

Also featuring Reem Shaikh, Gashmeer Mahajani and Vaishnavi Dhanraj, Tere Ishq Mein Ghayal is currently streaming on Colors TV and Voot.