The lady who got Aditya to keep his shirt and also take it off

Abhishek (Kapoor) and I have done Rock On!! and Kai Po Che! together. We’ve got our ease and comfort levels,” says stylist Niharika Bhasin when we call her to talk about Aditya Roy Kapoor’s no-shirt look in Fitoor...

A shirtless Aditya: Aditya going shirtless is part of the script and he is looking very hot. We were taking his shirt off and the background his character is from, body fat wouldn’t have worked. He worked really hard on it and he tried different things.... He allowed us to work on whatever we wanted to work on. There is this really big patiala salwar that I have given him and he was like, ‘Are you serious?’ I was like ‘Yes! Let’s do it. Let’s amp up the fashion quotient’. It’s lovely to see someone take it to the next level and really get out there and he did it.  

My Pip (on whom Aditya’s Noor is based): If he is an artist, definitely linen, flowy clothes… clothes that fall on him beautifully, that sense of ease of fabric on a body. 

From Great Expectations’s London to Fitoor’s Delhi: We didn’t look at anything Charles Dickens. It’s India now. It’s Kashmir, it’s Delhi, it’s Bombay. We were looking at what was high-end fashion at that point, what Delhi is like and we were looking at absolute poverty in Kashmir. The two worlds are really different.

Text: Saionee Chakraborty

After a few false starts, Aditya Roy Kapoor is finally doing what he loves. “I didn’t grow up wanting to be an actor. Everything just kind of happened and I grabbed the opportunities that came my way. But this… this I know is what I want to do,” he says emphatically. t2 met the handsome actor at Mehboob Studio in Mumbai to talk about Fitoor — his third film as a leading man — the downside to taking his role in the box-office flop Daawat-e-Ishq too seriously and why Katrina Kaif has the “mind of a ninja”. 

It’s been almost two years since we last saw you on screen!
Noooooo! It’s been a year and four months (pauses)... but, yes, it’s been a long time. I had signed Fitoor while I was still shooting Daawat-e-Ishq (directed by Habib Faisal and co-starring Parineeti Chopra). Unfortunately, Fitoor got pushed a couple of times. It’s just one of those unforeseen things. But ya, I would like to be doing more films.
   
Was it frustrating to not have a release for that long?
For me, I like to be on set more. That’s when I am my happiest. For that reason only I’d want to be doing more films. But ya, it is important at this stage in my career to have my releases. And to experiment with more genres. In the case of Fitoor, I was very involved with the whole project so I never really felt like I was sitting idle.

The last time we spoke, during the promotions of Daawat-e-Ishq, you said you were still finding your feet as an actor. Do you feel more settled now?
I don’t think I’ll ever be satisfied with my work. I will always want to grow and learn more. With every film I do, I feel like I have learnt a little more about my process and about myself. Daawat... had me playing someone who is so different from who I am and the process of getting that character taught me a lot. 

Noor, your character in Fitoor, is again someone who is so different from who you are...
It was a process to get into the role. Noor is a poor boy from Kashmir. I went to Kashmir and met people to observe their demeanour. The pace of life there is so different… so I had to learn to slow myself down. Also, this obsessive love that Noor feels (for Firdaus, played by Katrina Kaif) was tough to understand. His childhood infatuation becomes the obsession of his life. It was a difficult concept to wrap my head around.

Apart from this, I am playing an artist in the film. When you have a role that demands a specific skill set, you have to learn it. You don’t have to necessarily become the best installation artist or painter in the world, but you have to be able to convince people that you know what you are doing. So, I did art classes and also worked with wood and metal. It was fun. This is one of the perks of my job. Also, I had to look like Noor. I took my role in Daawat... a bit too seriously and got really fat.

You and fat?! No way!
Way! I was 98kg by the time I finished the film. I had to drop like 18kg in about 9-10 months. That was quite a process. If you want to drop that  much fat in that much time, you have to be a little psychotic about it. I went crazy. I wouldn’t cheat and I was working out twice a day. I even got sick because I was pushing myself too much. 

You had once interviewed Katrina as a VJ. Did you know her before you started working on this film?
No... I didn’t really know her. You know how it is when you go to interview someone. You do the interview and then you are out. We kind of have the same friend circle but I can’t say that we have ever been friends. I got to know Katrina through the course of making this film. I learnt from her.

Katrina is a very selfless actor. Most actors only worry about themselves and their performance. They lose sight of the whole film. After doing so many films, I think she’s realised that if your co-actors aren’t delivering it doesn’t matter how good you are. She really cares about what her co-actors are doing as well. She is always a very warm and thoughtful person. And I also learnt that she doesn’t like to be thanked (laughs). I hurt myself on this film and she sent a physiotherapist. I called to thank her and she completely brushed it aside.

In a previous interview you said she has the ‘mind of a ninja’...
(Laughs) Ya. She is very clear about what she wants and how she wants to get it. As a leading actress in the industry, I guess her life is very chaotic. But she is always just so focused on what she doing. She never gets flustered or aggressive. 

You are going to start shooting with Shraddha Kapoor soon for the Hindi remake of Mani Ratnam’s Ok Kanmani. Looking forward to that?
Yeah! I love the original. We start shooting fairly quickly… in March. I have a few weeks of prep and then we dive into the shoot. I am looking forward to the film because it’s a completely different zone for us to get into after we did Aashiqui 2. 

Karishma Upadhyay
Aditya Roy Kapoor is my fitoor because....
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