Aarya Babbar: ‘People assume that if an actor is rich, he won’t do TV’

It takes a lot for an actor to be selfaware of his strengths and shortcomings At this point Aarya Babbar believes his biggest strength is his ability to perform with complete abandon This lack of inhibition came from standup comedy While he enjoys standup comedy acting is his first love In conversation with midday Babbar discusses how his new show JagritimdashEk Nayi Subah helps him fulfil his passion for acting finding his place in the industry and his learnings over the yearsEdited excerpts from the interviewWhen did you start doing standup comedyI started doing it oneandahalf years ago At that time I was doing a lot of work in Hindi cinema which was financially great but it was not giving me creative satisfaction For instance I would do a film because I had bought a new house and needed to get the interiors done I had become that person I was in a rut mentally until one day I decided to try standup comedy on open mics There were about 10 to 15 other comics who were shocked to know that I was performing The satisfaction I got that day was a high Then I kept going back as it made me happy It helped me let go of many inhibitions and the more uninhibited an actor is the better he performs One of my biggest opening jokes is about how I started my career with Ab Ke Baras 2002 which was about two births and not even one could save the filmLaughing at oneself is never easyItrsquos something I learnt from Shah Rukh Khan sir He once said that if you can laugh at yourself you will be the most confident personLooking back on your career did you ever believe the negative chatter surrounding youWhen you have selfdoubt you believe in a lot of negative things said about you It compels you to hear more negative chatter unconsciously It happened in the initial years of my career because I thought I wasnrsquot getting the kind of roles I was expecting Over the years I realised that the industry is very kind to me It will always give you the work you deserve at that particular time If over the past few years I was getting work that gave me money but no creative satisfaction the industry perhaps believed I deserved that I realised that getting work was the important thing It is pointless to only get papped I am an actor not an influencerHow did JagritimdashEk Nayi Subah come to youThe showrsquos casting director asked me if I was open to doing television A lot of people assume that if an actor is rich he wonrsquot do television You canrsquot fight that thought process and sometimes you donrsquot wish to fight it If someone believes you are wearing a real Rolex even when it is fake why correct that notion But I was keen to work When they sent me the scene for the look test I wore a black salwar and kurta and performed It was an instant yes from the makersWhat was your discussion with the makers about the fictitious Chitta tribeAfter reading the script I had several meetings with them where I tried to understand the nuances they wanted from my character Kalikant Thakur I worked with a dialect coach too We worked on my characterrsquos body language style and personality We now have a bank of seven to 10 episodes I irritate my coactors by rehearsing a lot While shooting for TV shows you cannot go on set and rehearse for an hour or two But when the crew is fixing the lighting I keep doing my linesThe show sees you teaming up with Asmi Deo What is it like to work with an eightyearoldEvery kid is annoying until she is on camera laughs When Asmi is facing the camera she is a complete professional I have never felt that I am working with an actor who is not serious about their work She knows what she is there to do and performs well