THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK – Vardhan Puri

Actor Vardhan Puri on his journey in Bollywood, how theatre opened his world, and therefore the unique bond he shared with his grandfather Amrish Puri.

Your Instagram profile says ‘if it is often imagined, it is often made into a film’. How important is imagination power for an actor?

I think imagination is everything for an actor because whenever you're playing a personality, there are different sorts of roles that we've to play as an actor. We haven’t lived the life of all those people whom we are getting to enact. Like for instance, if i even have to play the role of a policeman or a doctor i even have not been lived their life. So, i even have to find out from experiences & observation. Character building is nothing but putting observation and imagination together and marrying them both. Imagination is a crucial prerequisite of becoming an actor. Therefore, an acting teacher always says that meditation is extremely important in terms of performance. Mediation allows you to reinforce your power of imagination. So consistent with me, imagination is everything.

How did ‘Paagal’ happen to you?

I would say ‘pagaal’ happened thanks to the facility of manifestation and that i manifested it for a real while. I had an exquisite conversation with Yash Chopra (ji) and he identified a particular spark in me. I used to be alleged to do a movie with Jayantilal Gada and Mahesh Bhatt Sahab which didn’t compute thanks to certain reasons. That's once i discovered the magic of romantic thrillers and alongside my director, we found this concept of ‘Paagal’ and that’s how it happened. There was a thought that i used to be performing on with my co-writer and my director Chirag and therefore the moment Jayanti uncle realized that i used to be doing that film with Bhatt Sahab, he told me that I'm excited to figure with you, so if he gets something good he’ll contact me and if i find something good i should contact him needless to say. That's once we visited Jayanti's uncle with this concept and after presenting it on an audio-visual presentation, within 5 minutes he asked us to go away space and called us back after a moment and told us that we are performing on this film. So it had been a matter of 5 minutes that took him to lock the film.

Tell us about your bond together with your grandfather Amrish Puri?

(Vardhan Puri) said our bond was very unique because alongside being my grandfather, he was also my ally. My room was adjacent to his room and as a child, i won’t to always sneak into space and sleep in between him and my grandmother. Of course, there was a high sense of respect, he was very firm and he made sure that i respected everyone. I had this habit of touching my grandfather and grandmother’s feet the instant i met them within the morning and in the dark just before sleeping. Whenever my grandparents want to click, my sister Saachi and my brothers Krish and Shantanu want to touch their feet and spend tons of quality time with them. He was considered a part of our childhood. He uses to urge us things to eat and buy us cool toys. He won’t to help us repair our remote cars and help my sister join back her broken dolls. It had been a cozy and cute bond reception and he never made us realize that he's such an enormous star.

As a fanatical reader, what sorts of book you're keen on reading. Is there any book that you simply think is often converted into a movie with you as a leader?

There is this fantastic play written by Vijay Tendulkar called ‘Sakharam binder and that i have promised my grandfather and my theatre guru Pandit Satyadev Dubey that at some point in my life i will be able to make a movie thereon. Vardhan Puri is hooked into this play because it may be a complex tale of a few men, his marriage, and another person and therefore the dynamic between them. It's so beautiful, complex, and nuanced something that Vardhan Puri said he likes to make into a movie and act in