Mumbai: in an exclusive conversation with actors Vardhaan Puri and Kaveri Kapur, where they share their experiences working with co-stars and seniors, navigating legacy, and coping with audience expectations. Director Kunal Kohli discusses casting fresh talents, technology in filmmaking, and his passion for music. The trio also explores AI, technology, and the future of entertainment, offering unique insights into the industry.
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#KunalKohli #VardhaanPuri #KaveriKapur #Exclusiveinterview #Trending #2025 #BollywoodCountry #BollywoodNews #BollywoodGossips #BollywoodUpdates #BollywoodNews #Bollywood #Bollywoodcelebrity #BollywoodHindiNews #ians
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FunTranscript
00:00Hello, good answer. Hello, company. Welcome to NS. First of all, congratulations for
00:05Bobby and Rishi's love story which is on your side. Thank you so much. I want to start off
00:09with the captain of the ship. When you set out to tell this story, what was it about these two
00:14actors that made you take them and tell your story through them? So I wanted someone very innocent.
00:23I wanted someone real and I wanted some actors who were raw. I didn't want and when I say raw,
00:30I mean raw in a very nice way. And when I say real, I mean where
00:39the face, the body is not very gym made or Botox made. It's all real.
00:44So in every way of these, they tick the box very well and they can act.
01:05And my next question is for both the actors.
01:07Having a director like him, who has such a great body of work, no cinema in and out,
01:14the nuances of it. What were the prerequisites for you as actors?
01:22These should be the minimum profession that we need to take up. Anyone can take the lead.
01:29You want to go first?
01:30I think when you have someone who has experienced and with such a
01:36vast amount of knowledge like Kunal sir, number one, you need to be a great student,
01:42not only of Kunal sir but of cinema. You need to understand why you do what you do.
01:49Kunal sir was the best captain we could have asked for. He was a friend when he needed to be,
01:57he was a parent when he needed to be, he was the director of the film all the time. And
02:03he just gave us so much love and he made us feel so safe.
02:06We were actually, our mind and hearts were married to his heart and mind.
02:27We told him that sir, we are blank slates.
02:37We will do a long term affair with the script, a loyal affair and we just stay in the moment.
02:50Just be there and just be in love with the characters, be in love with the script and
02:54just be madly in love like we still are and will always be with his mind, body and soul.
02:59Yeah.
03:02So this is my first experience as an actor in general. So given that I was working with Kunal
03:11and the fact that I was about to step onto my first movie set, never having anticipated that
03:16I would be an actor in my life, I needed a lot of preparation and we got lucky because even with
03:24what type of preparation to do, I think you guided us in a very structured manner
03:30because every day he would say, okay Kaveri, today I need you to do these scenes. I need
03:36you all to do a reading and I need you all to send it to me by tonight. And every day we had
03:41kind of a structured routine of what scenes we had to learn, which ones we had to read, record
03:47and send. So I knew nothing about acting and I knew nothing about preparing for acting. So luckily
03:58I had a very good teacher on both those things. So yeah, the preparation was made very smooth
04:07because I think he because with this rawness that he wanted also comes a lack of experience
04:16and so he knew how to handle both of those. I think the interesting thing was that
04:25the interesting thing was like when I gave them homework
04:36sometimes I would see it at night and sometimes I would not see it
04:40because I knew that was a very simple scene and I didn't want to see it.
04:43There was a reason for that because I wanted them to come on set
04:47and surprise me. Had I seen it and then they would do the same thing on set again then I'd
04:51be not so surprised. I'd be like, what is this? I saw this last night. So I would sometimes see that
04:57and then tell them, no, no, no, don't do it like this. It's a little over or
05:00reduce this a little. Don't go so far. Just give me a quiet expression.
05:05Don't do anything. You're overdoing it or you're underplaying it. So I would
05:08sometimes or sometimes they'd come and ask me, what should I do here? I don't know.
05:13I'd say, don't worry. Here you have to do nothing. Here the background music will take over.
05:18You just stand there. Just eat an ice cream. Just walk over here. Don't act over here. Just walk.
05:23Just walk. Be a little sad. That's it.
05:30So sometimes I had to just guide them in the right direction. I didn't need to show them
05:34how to act. I had to just put them in the right direction, which was lovely.
05:38And very good thing that you mentioned this. I want to further mention to this that for any
05:44director, for example, like with your experience, you know how cinema works. You've given us
05:49memorable films, memorable characters. But still, how important it is for any director or any
05:54artist for that matter, to explore that unknown space, to not sort of have that sense of control
06:00and be surprised from what's coming next. You have to, I don't, nobody knows anything.
06:06We don't know because every day on set is a new challenge. An actor can ask you the
06:11most simplest of things for which you might not have an answer. You might have the most
06:16difficult thing to express from an actor and he might just do it like this.
06:21And then you're like, okay, I've done this. What else can I do? How can I do this in a different way?
06:27So the fun is not, and sometimes the fun is not what is being said in the lines,
06:32but what's between the lines. The silences, that's where the best performances come. In the silence.
06:44That is acting. Acting is what is happening before and after seeing the lines.
06:52That's important. So I think that you can never plan.
06:55It can't, it can never be planned. And it should not be planned.
07:07So that exploration is filmmaking.
07:12And Kaveri and Varadhan, you have such huge, humongous legacy resting on your shoulder.
07:17Working with him, did you at any point in time have that fear or did you at any time
07:25feel that pressure that you have to live up to that legacy and also
07:28bring up something of my own?
07:33No, I think this is mostly because I never saw myself being an actor.
07:41I never felt the pressure of that legacy. And also because for my parents, I don't think,
07:47especially my dad, I don't think he saw it as, oh, I'm a director and now my daughter is becoming
07:53an actor. It was just like my daughter is exploring this new phase of her life.
07:57Let's give her some space and freedom to do it.
08:01So there was no pressure. I really enjoyed the whole process of discovering myself as an actor.
08:11And I think where I felt pressure more was in the music field because I've grown up as a musician.
08:21My mom is a musician. So sometimes I would put a lot of pressure on myself as a singer
08:28because I spent years training to be a singer-songwriter. So there, if I fall short,
08:35I tend to be kind of hard on myself. But with acting, it was sort of like an experiment for me
08:41in this phase. So I didn't feel any family pressure because of the way I was approaching
08:53it. And because also of the way that they were kind of like, they would just stand back and
08:59letting me explore this new phase of my life. Honestly, because my family has done
09:10very notable work and fantastic work, I decided very young when I was a theatre actor that I'm
09:17never going to take the pressure. Because if you take the pressure, the pressure will come on you.
09:22I just think, I feel very responsible because they've done such great work and I
09:27want to choose the right work. I want to choose to work with the right people. More important than
09:34people who are really good at what they do is, I want to work with good human beings.
09:39I want to collaborate with kind people. I want to collaborate with people
09:43who have the best interest of the world in mind.
09:48They could be the finest filmmakers in the world but if they're not nice people,
09:52then spending one year with them would not be a very joyous experience.
10:09Talent can be 19-20 but not humanity. If a person is 19-20 then it won't be fun to work.
10:16So, I feel responsible to work with the right kind of people, to work on the right kinds of subjects
10:22so that I can make my family, my close people, my ancestors proud. So, responsibility is there,
10:28pressure is zero. It's very difficult to work with pressure. If I think every day,
10:34I hope Saigal Saab or Mr. Amrish Puri, my grandfathers, I can live up to him.
10:42They're my gods. You don't compare yourself with your gods. You pray to them. You want to make
10:46them proud. So, similarly, I just want to make them proud and I want to have my unique path and
10:52if I can do that, if I can be original, if I can be authentic to who I am, they'll be very proud of me.
10:59And weren't there any instances while shooting that something that you did as a part of your
11:03acting like then you thought, okay, I might have done something differently but you decided to
11:08go with the flow as demanded? Actually, Kunal sir is a very collaborative mind.
11:14You know, if Kunal sir likes something and if the actor inside you says,
11:21Kunal sir, please, I want to try one more, he'll always give you that. He'll always give it to you
11:26even though if he's sure, I'm going to use this. But just so that we can sleep well at night
11:32because he understands the actor's mind, I call him Dr. Kunal Kohli because
11:49he knows the anatomy of the human heart. Of course, I'm speaking metaphorically. He knows it
11:56like no one else. But you know, it's very important what he's saying is very important because
12:06sir, I want to do one more and I say, no, no, I've got what I wanted too.
12:12They won't say anything but
12:16then they'd be unhappy. The next time when they want to do something and I don't let them and
12:20they know then they won't ask. Then there's a rift created between actor and director.
12:26And when that happens, then it's not a good thing.
12:29And it's all, how much more time will it take? One more take. Do it.
12:32It'll take 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes. So what? It'll take an hour.
12:36Come on, take an hour. What difference will it make?
12:39You know, nothing's going to happen. Let the actor do one more and let him sleep better.
12:45Which you will like. Great.
12:49You'll take a decision later. No problem. But let him do it and move on with your life happily.
12:55Okay. I've seen some directors on set and actors have told me,
12:59they'll say, no, no, not one more. Then the actor will say, why?
13:03Okay. Why? Because I've got what I want. But I want to do it like this.
13:14You're wasting time arguing.
13:18But a lot of directors get stuck.
13:25Or sometimes the actors behave like that. Sometimes the actor gets into that ego.
13:35There's no ego in filmmaking.
13:55So 99% of the times, if Kunal sir told us,
14:02so we used to say, done, sir. But if we thought that Kunal sir's got it,
14:06but we won't be able to sleep, we used to request him.
14:10He used to always give it to us.
14:11Yeah, happily.
14:14Do one more take.
14:16And talking about, you spoke about filmmaking being a collaborative effort.
14:22Now I want both your inputs on this and Kaveri also.
14:26How has technology helped to kind of explore for a collaborative space more?
14:32Because in the earlier times, there used to be filming machines.
14:35We were working against the constraint of time.
14:38But in the current times, everything is so digitized.
14:40You have the luxury of time again.
14:42So how has technology helped to nurture that?
14:45I think technology has helped in every which way.
14:48Because you can, on set, you can check the edit if you want to.
14:56You can check your VFX on sets nowadays.
15:04So I think technology must be embraced as much as you can
15:08and use technology to better your film and make your life easier.
15:12Rather than, you know, not use technology and run away from it.
15:16Technology is the best thing to have happened to filming.
15:21I don't think I'm the right person to ask about this.
15:24I don't.
15:27For example, I'm working on a film.
15:46A two and a half hour film was doing animated figures in front of me.
15:51I think it's amazing because if a director can put his vision out for a film which
15:58you know, he has envisioned and he wants it there so that he can only keep adding to it.
16:03I think it's quite amazing if he's clear with it.
16:06A lot of filmmakers say that I don't want to go with so much clarity
16:09because I want to have this fun on set.
16:11I want to discover as I go along.
16:12But if this director or a particular director I'm talking about who I cannot name at the moment.
16:18If he has that clarity or someone has that clarity, I think it's absolutely amazing.
16:26There was limited footage you had.
16:28There was a limited amount of feet of film you could use.
16:31But today there's no problem like that.
16:33If you need one more take for sure, you need it and it's going to add only to the film.
16:42There are VFX supervisors on set who are showing you how it's happening while going along.
16:48You have a clearer idea of what the final film will look like.
16:52Then you can keep adding to it.
16:53So I think technology is just helping enhance the filmmaking experience and
16:59definitely we are making better films.
17:01Because earlier there was so much difference between digital and film.
17:06It was losing its emotional quality.
17:07Today I can vouch for the fact that you can give the same grain on digital media.
17:14You can achieve the film-like look here.
17:17So there's nothing we're missing.
17:18We're only adding to the experience.
17:20I think it's amazing and especially what AI is going to do soon in filmmaking
17:25is going to take filmmaking to an all-new level.
17:30It's going to be, you can't even imagine what it's going to be.
17:32Even I can't imagine.
17:37you