Ayushmann Khurrana: Delhi is like second home, I end up shooting here almost year

Actor Ayushmann Khurrana’s choice of films has always been exciting, beginning from when he started off with Vicky Donor in 2012 playing the role of a sperm donor. He followed this unusual attempt with movies such as Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015), Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017), and a film dealing with erectile dysfunction, Shubh Mangal Saavdhan (2017).

His next line-up of films includes Badhaai Ho and Shoot the Piano Player (STPP). Explaining how starkly different both the movies are, Ayushmann says, “Both are of completely different genres, different scripts, and [have] very different directors. Badhaai Ho is right up my alley, the space I own — quirky, slice-of-life films. Shoot the Piano Player, on the other hand, is heavy on thrills.”

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Having never done any stunts in any of his films before, was he a bit apprehensive when he had to do it in STPP? “There are some stunts. But more than that, the film is heavy on thrills. Something [new] is happening in every scene of the film. It’s not action-oriented, though I did a couple of stunts, like where I jump from the first floor without any harness. The stunt director taught me a trick, and the shot was okayed in one take.”

Significant portions of Badhaai Ho were shot in Delhi, with his co-star Sanya Malhotra. Ayushmann is popularly believed to be a Delhi boy though he was born and raised in Chandigarh, Punjab.One reason could be the way he has always picked up the Delhi lingo effortlessly, but he reveals an interesting fact about his character in this film.

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He speaks in not one, but three different accents!“In this film, I play an interesting character, who is desi, and switches accents when dealing with different kind of people. So he speaks in urban Delhi lingo, in a Meerut accent, the UP type, and Haryanvi. It’s a mixture of three accents,” says Ayushmann, for whom Delhi is like his “second home.”

“I end up shooting here almost every year! It becomes exciting for me as an actor to cover Delhi every single time. This is my fourth film shot in the Capital. I have been coming here since 2012, and each time discover something new. It’s a melting point of different cultures — Uttar Pradesh, Himachal, Bengali, South — it’s a cosmopolitan city,” adds Ayushmann.

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