Harsh Varrdhan Kapoor: Doesn't matter if I'm the lead or in a film for 10 minutes

Actor Harsh Varrdhan Kapoor, who recently had a cameo as himself in the Vikramaditya Motwane directorial AK Vs AK, says he approached the concept of playing himself as he would have done with any other character.

"I never approached it as myself playing myself, because I'm actually not like that in real life. I just approached it as I would (approach) any other character, building the character from scratch. We were playing versions of ourselves in the world that Vikram had imagined. I'm not really like that, so I just kind of took the material and let that dictate the approach that I took, and had a lot of fun with it," Harsh Varrdhan told IANS.

Recalling the scenes that stayed with him, he said: "The one major scene that I had was a six-seven page monologue. It is nerve wracking to do monologues, especially comedic monologues. It was a big challenge."

"I also wanted to work really hard to leave my mark in my short screen time, so I took it up as a challenge really like any other acting job. To me it doesn't matter if I'm the lead or I'm in a film for 10 minutes, you have to really commit to it and do whatever you can," he added.

The film stars Anil Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap as alternate versions of themselves, and Harsh Varrdhan says his presence in the film was bound to happen.

"Vikram would be able to talk about why he took the decision (to make me part of the film) or why (he created) the character because he is the one that created the character and wrote the part. But I think it kind of fits into the context of the film, and the character is kind of a distraction from what is happening. He comes into the film at a time when it's very dense and he breaks the tension with this crazy unexpected monologue. I think it was really funny to be that kind of a central character in this very crazy metafilm," he said.

The actor, who made his debut with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's 2016 dud "Mirzya", opened up on his upcoming projects. "I shot a small film with Vasan Bala that is being edited now. Details about the film will be available soon. I'm also currently shooting a thriller for a platform, which is again quite a big film and I'm halfway through with that. In addition to 'AK Vs AK', I will have two more releases this year. Post this, I'm looking forward to shooting the (Abhinav) Bindra biopic probably in winter this year and hopefully something else before that in the summer," he said.

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