No politics please, only cinema, says Arjun Singh’s grandson

MUMBAI - With his political lineage, he would seem just right in politics. But Congress veteran Arjun Singh’s grandson Arunoday is clear that Bollywood is where he belongs. He plays a gangster in “Yeh Saali Zindaagi” by Sudhir Mishra, whom he calls a hard taskmaster.

“I’ve always been interested in acting. Since my school days I have been doing theatre. I’m not interested in politics at all. As it is I feel there is enough politics in Bollywood,” Arunoday Singh told IANS in an interview.

Being unconventional is almost second nature for him. He entered the film world with a negative role — he played a terrorist in 2009 film “Sikandar”.

The 6′4″ actor impressed many with his suave looks in “Aisha” and then went on to do “Mirch”, a film on the politics of sex that also starred Konkana Sen Sharma.

And he’s now ready with yet another unconventional venture in “Yeh Saali Zindagi”, which has Irrfan Khan and Chitrangada Singh in lead roles and releases Feb 4.

“It was easy to make a decision to do this film because the script is brilliant, the role is great and Sudhir Mishra is one of my favourite Indian directors,” Arunoday reasoned.

“I’m playing a local gangster in the film, who is from Old Delhi. My character’s name in the film is Kuldeep, who has no parents and has grown up in the life of petty crime. He has a really bad temper and is almost like a maniac, but when it comes to the girl he loves, he completely changes,” said the 27-year-old.

“Yeh Saali Zindagi” is a romantic thriller. It shows how far the two actors will go to get the woman they love and how sometimes one screw-up can set everything right.

Arunoday said that while the character was not tough, he still worked hard to get it right.

“I worked a lot on the script….I saw what it’s trying to tell me and that helped me to create the kind of personality needed for the character. For the language, I worked a lot with the film’s dialogue writer…So, little by little I built something.”

Arunoday has no complaints about director Sudhir Mishra being a hard taskmaster.

“Sudhir is a wonderful person. I’m lucky to have got an opportunity to work with him. He is exactly what he needs to be. On days he is very calm and jovial, but on days he wants you to deliver something, he will get you to work. There is nothing wrong in Sudhir being a hard taskmaster, which he can be at times. Because this is work that we are doing and somebody needs to make sure that it is done.

“We are not on a holiday. I’d rather have somebody who pushes me and gets the best out of me just like Sudhir,” he said.

Arunoday was clear about not entering politics early on. He did his schooling from Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu and then went to Boston where he majored in English literature, creative writing and journalism.