Arjun Kapoor says bonding with Ranveer Singh was very simple, and credits their film Gunday for their friendship. Gunday, also featuring Irrfan Khan and Priyanka Chopra, released on February 14 in 2014.
“I think it was the off-camera love and respect we had for each other, because we realised how much we have in common. In fact we are born just 10 days apart from each other! It was much simpler for us to bond than we realised and you let go of being actors when you are starting out,” said Arjun.
“At that stage in your life you are not thinking about your career and rivalry. You are just trying to make the best film possible and have the most fun. Ranveer and I also knew each other before the film so it made it a little simpler to break the ice onset,” he added.
“Credit to (director) Ali (Abbas Zafar) for writing a film that allowed us to be best friends. He was a big factor for me and Ranveer to come so close. It just happened, it was just the flow. It’s like chalk and cheese even though we are poles apart we still manage to fit together. It’s like sugar and spice, they are opposites but they both sound good together,” said Arjun.
“We were two people who were completely different but we just ended up getting along and working well together. People sort of realised it when they saw the trailer, where both of us looked good together as a unit but I think we realised it while filming itself that this relationship is something special,” he said.
Looking back at the film’s release, Arjun said: “At the time I was starting my career, I was hardly six months old in the business and Adi sir offered me a film that was a two-hero ensemble, a big commercial set-up. When I met Ali, I loved his energy and his excitement towards treating it like a larger than life adventure.”
About the film, he added: “It was like a throwback and a tribute to the 1970s and 1980s cinema that even I grew up watching. The Mukul Anand, Subhash Ghai space of cinema, and at the same time a film about brotherhood and gangsters. When you are a young actor starting out, these are all trappings that you love exploring and doing in mainstream cinema. You want to establish yourself at the beginning. You want to do mainstream stuff with a sense of heightened reality and that’s what Gunday was actually. I got really excited about doing something so front-footed and mainstream,” he said.