18th March, Mumbai: Actor Karan Kundra says that his new show Tere Ishq Mein Ghayal is very different from what is there on screen. In fact, the actor says that his character has been portrayed in a unique way.
“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 they are not real. There is no Mogambo in real life, neither are there absolute good guys. 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 says.
Ask him if he had any reservations about joining the show, and he says, “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 television 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?”
People have been comparing the show to Vampire Diaries, he does admit that this came to his mind a well.
“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 watch us? They might as well watch The Vampire Diaries again. It does look like the (international) show, that’s why people are comparing them. But 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 says.
He adds, “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 I offer to do another take. As an actor, you have to keep ensuring that you bring your own touch to the character.”