NITIN ARORA, who was recently seen in MX Players’ Dangerous, shares with MUSBA HASHMI the experience of working with Bipasha Basu, his fondest memory from the sets and the reason why thrillers can never go out of trend
What is your role in Dangerous?
I play a cop, Jags. But the role is more of a detective, like Sherlock Holmes than a cop. It’s an amazing role. Bipasha and I are out on solving a case.
What attracted you towards the role?
For any actor who is getting to play such a role is like a dream. The film is good and the way it has been shot in London is brilliant. Also the role that I am playing, it’s not a usual cop. He doesn’t wear a uniform. He is an extremely calm character throughout. It’s a beautiful role altogether. Also no one would like to miss a chance to work with Bipasha Basu.
Dangerous marks your OTT platform debut. How was the experience working on the platform?
The experience was amazing. It was like the most beautiful 50 days of my life. Natasha (Suri) and I had a wonderful time together and we fought a lot too. It was like revisiting my college days.
Your fondest memory from the sets.
Natasha and I were sharing a big room together on the sets. We used to get ready there and I pulled her leg throughout. We became best friends during the course of time. Like, I said it was more of a college time for me. The way I played pranks on her, it was fun.
Thrillers never go out of trend. What do you think makes them so popular?
You are absolutely right, thrillers can never get out of trend because they are very edgy. We all love to have thrills in life but we usually don’t get to see these things happening in our lives. It goes without saying that we are automatically attracted towards things that doesn’t happen in our life. It also creates excitement in the audience wherein they anticipate what happens next in the film. Excitement level is high and that is the reason for people’s inclination towards thrillers.
You don several hats that of an actor, director, host and others. What comes naturally to you?
I have been hosting for 20 years now. Every host is an actor. When you are on stage, you are acting. I remember when I hosted Commonwealth games, there were 60,000 people in the stadium. You have to be a great actor in order to control such a huge crowd. On the stage, I was reciting a poem — Veer tum badhey chalo hum tumharey saath hain and the whole crowd was reciting it with me. Hence, you have to be an actor to get connected with your audience at a given point of time. So acting and hosting come naturally to me and I love doing it.
How do you define acting?
Acting is a skill that you naturally have. Actors are not made, they are born. Of course, you brush up your skills over time, but this doesn’t change the fact. An actor is like water. Whichever vessel he’ll be in, he is so flexible that he will acquire that very shape. That’s why an actor is called a character. He is bound to get into the skin of the character that he plays.
