'I Was Going Through The Worst Phase Of My Life'

'It reached a point where I think I self-imploded. I was not a happy person. And the fire within me diminished.'

Blockbuster movies have a way of reviving careers and Arjun Kapoor hopes it will happen with his villain role in Rohit Shetty's Singham Again.

This, he says, is his 'starting point'.

"I'm happy people are liking my work... Now is the new starting point. The rebirth or the redemption, whatever you want to call it, I think it starts now," Arjun said.

He plays the modern-day version of Raavan, named Danger Lanka, in the movie.

The 39-year-old actor, who made his debut in 2012 with Ishaqzaade, said the offer for Singham Again came at the right time in his life.

"I was looking at a challenge and an opportunity to prove and push myself and grab my chance in a competitive environment. I thought this was the right opportunity."

Kapoor has portrayed characters of varying shades right from the beginning, whether it was his debut film or movies like Ek Villain Returns, Gunday and Aurangzeb. But the actor said his portrayal in Singham Again gave him a chance to go all out.

"I knew it's a blockbuster, a big-budget bonanza that people will come to watch. If you have to go all the way there, you choose a film like this.

"Like, Ajay Devgn sir did Khakee. It's a big film in which he chose to play a villain. Saif (Ali Khan) did Omkara and Bobby (Deol) did Animal. So when you go for big films, you go to the extreme. The payoff is that the mainstream audience that has liked you as a positive will also like the negative thing."

Arjun said he didn't approach his role as that of the demon king Raavan, though the film is an interpretation of the epic Ramayana. In the film, the actor abducts Kareena Kapoor Khan's Avni, the wife of Devgn's honest cop Bajirao Singham.

"I didn't see it as playing Raavan. I thought of him as Danger Lanka. I was like, there's an interpretation of the Ramayana in the film. Like Rang De Basanti had the legend of Bhagat Singh, but it was about those characters. He (Shetty) was making the Ramayana the way he had imagined it.

"But for me, the excitement was to play this uncontrollable mad man, who believes he is right. It is a delicious place to be at, you can do what you feel like. I did what I felt like, and that was the most exciting part of the film as an actor."

Arjun said he has become aware that he needs to take care of himself physically and mentally to deliver his best as an actor.

"When you're young, you can take on a lot. As time proceeds, I want to be clear about saying yes because I want to really go out there and do a film. So the choices you're making on a day-to-day basis have to get better.

"Post COVID, things didn't really hit the spot. I signed a couple of films, and not everything panned out perfectly. So for about five-six years... It's a long time before you feel any kind of connect with the audience. It's not about praise or hate. You feel disconnected from your audience and they're not seeing the work," he said.

In an interview with Anupama Chopra for Hollywood Reporter, Arjun had revealed, 'When I signed this film, I was going through the worst phase of my life. Personally, professionally, emotionally, mentally and physically. I did not know whether I was depressed or not, I just knew something was not working. I was procrastinating a lot.

'I stopped enjoying watching films and I only know that. So for me, my life was films. And then it reached a point where I think I self-imploded. I was not a happy person. And the fire within me diminished.'

He went on to add: 'I have something called Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. It's an extension of having a thyroid issue. Your antibodies fight against you. It's almost like I can take a flight and gain weight because the body goes into stress.

'The stress mode is when your antibodies believe something is wrong, and it goes into action. The more relaxed I am, the better I look -- which is ironic because, in this profession, you're not really relaxed.'