Barun Sobti: I feel the show is underrated

You wonrsquot see too much of Barun Sobti on screen and he likes it that way After he shot to fame with his television show Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon the actor didnrsquot go on a signing spree instead choosing his projects carefully He is playing by his own rules in digital entertainment too Sobti reprised his role of Nikhil Nair in the second season of JioCinemarsquos Asur In conversation with midday he talks about being off the radar the mythology thrillerrsquos popularity and his belief in karmaEdited excerpts from the interviewDid things change for you after the first instalmentrsquos successNot really People took notice of me and said lsquoYou can actrsquo But it wasnrsquot as if I got any phenomenal roles after that That could also be because I am spoilt for choice and only pick up roles that I want to do The only show that I would credit for putting me on the map is Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon After Asur I was in the audiencersquos mind but I was not offered mindblowing roles At the same time itna mindblowing kaam hota bhi nahin hai apne desh mein laughs I am happy with how my career has shaped up but I donrsquot know if it has happened because of AsurWhat did you think of the second seasonMy wife and I watched it in two days straight Itrsquos so far ahead of the first season Irsquod be lying if I said I was not looking at myself critically If I see a series where I am good and everything else is bad I will call it out Conversely if I were to see a show where I have not been good but everybody else is phenomenal Irsquod call that out too With respect to Asur 2 everything was excellentWhat was your wife Pashmeenrsquos reactionShe is an influential person in my life When she backs what I am thinking it solidifies my stance She instantly liked the show tooThe bathtub scene is among the most hardhitting in the series How did you go about itI read the whole script then I prepare myself according to how I am placed in a particular scene and determine my road map My character Nikhil Nair starts the second season with a lot of guilt He is also the kind who doesnrsquot indulge much in vanity He is focused on saving the world That is why he sacrifices his daughter in the previous season The show is about a national crisis more than how a family is affected by the death of a child The bathtub sequence was consuming I have a daughter so it helped me understand the nuances of the sceneAsur stands out as much for its writing as for its performancesGaurav Shukla is a phenomenal writer The scale in the first season was much lower the genius of the writing was that it could accommodate the low budget In the second season the show became quite big and could go anywhere So one could make a lot of mistakes too Gaurav upgraded the show to tackle a bigger problem instead of writing himself into a corner I am not a big fan of mythology but itrsquos remarkable how Gaurav aligned it all together Everyone is saying that Asur has done great but I feel it is underratedDo you believe in karmaI believe in time I was taught in childhood lsquoNeki kar dariya mein daalrsquo Thatrsquos where I stand I think people who believe in karma are the ones who are waiting for good things to happen to them because they did goodWhatrsquos nextI have three shows coming backtoback mdash a romantic comedy called Badtameez Dil on Amazon miniTV a crime thriller called Kohrra on Netflix and a comingofdrama Bawandar