EXCLUSIVE: Itâs easy to get stereotyped in our industry says Varun Sood

Has anyone ever told you that you look like Flynn Rider from Tangled?” I ask Varun Sood on a candid phone call. He laughs, “Yes, I get that a lot. I take that as a compliment.” Clearly, it’s a popular opinion the young actor has garnered for his good looks and undeniable charm. Sood instantly made waves in the weeks after the release of Call Me Bae on OTT. The series saw him play Prince, a gym trainer who falls for an heiress (Ananya Panday). He played the character with a Ken-like endearing quality that feels like an extension of his real-life persona. Varun reflects on how his roles often mirror his own personality, saying, “All the characters I’ve played have a reflection of me. In acting, you’re taught to empathise with your character and find similarities to make it your own.”

He relates to his character Prince from Call Me Bae, who loves making people happy and is helpful—traits he has in real life. Opening up about playing a green flag man in a world of films that celebrate hypermasculinity, Varun shares, “All kinds of men exist in this world. You’ll find green flags, red flags, grey flags. Every colour of flag in today’s day and age.” According to him, the reason the three male characters in Call Me Bae received appreciation was because, despite being masculine, they were still able to maintain their softness and gentleness. Men written by women are indeed having a moment. He says, “I think Ranveer Singh did a fabulous job in Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. My character was a slightly more refined version of Rocky. He was a lot more Delhi.”

Opening up about how Call Me Bae resonates with millennials and Gen Z, he shares, “If you notice, the show is all about social media. Every doubt that somebody has, they go on social media to figure it out. If you want to send out an important message, you go on social media to reach a larger audience.” The actor says he shares a great camaraderie with his ‘Bae’, Ananya Panday, and waxes eloquent about her journey. “I think her last three projects, Gehraiyaan, Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, and Call Me Bae have been fantastic. To make a character like Bae convincing is a hard thing.”

A rewind of his Roadies audition tape will tell you how far Varun has come. He feels his acting journey began with JugJugg Jeeyo, a Dharma project, and then he got his first big OTT break in Karmma Calling. He worked with Raveena Tandon in the series. Recalling the gold mine of knowledge that working with the veteran was, he says, “Raveena ma’am is a person who’s been around since the ’90s and has so much experience to share. Working with her was like attending a masterclass. It was a treat. The best thing I learnt from her was that no matter where you are in life, no matter what you have achieved in life and how big you are, hunger should never die.”



He is very happy that people are now noticing him as an actor after Bae. When asked about the Dharma films that left an impression on him, Sood shares, “In my first year of college, I saw Ranbir Kapoor in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and it blew my mind. I was mind-blown. How can somebody portray a character so complex with such ease? We have all grown up to like Dharma movies. Kal Ho Naa Ho and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai are stuck in my brain like a core memory. So now to be associated with that company and the production house feels like a dream come true.”

It’s easy to get stereotyped in our industry. He was getting variations of good-looking rich-guy roles, and Naam Namak Nishan, set in Officers’ Training Academy, broke that stereotype. “I played an army cadet. I had the same haircut as everybody else and the same uniform. I kind of looked like everybody else. That changed the stereotype. I hope I get more roles in the future where I can experiment with my character,” he asserts.

Ask him to offer advice to young actors, and he says he can only offer what he has observed, experienced, and applied in his own life. “You don’t have a plan B. You will never have a plan B. So don’t be scared about things not happening. Keep working hard on yourself. Keep going through the same process of auditioning, getting rejected, because there will be one day when somebody will have that trust in you and it’ll all begin again. Don’t worry. Everything will be okay.”

See Also: Call Me Bae series review: Entertainment with social media & Gen Z culture

from filmfares https://ift.tt/1iNpzXI