Kartik Aaryan on life before he achieved success: ‘I was in a mess, and I was struggling’

Actor Kartik Aaryan, who hit limelight with the success of his film Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, is among the most successful new stars in town. Prior to this film, his two previous films, Pyaar Ka Punchnama and its sequel - Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 - were also successful. In a new interview, he says, despite being an outsider, he never had a Plan B in place.

A qualified engineer, Kartik says if it hadn’t been for this profession, he would have been a mess. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, he said: “I didn’t have a Plan B. If I didn’t have this career then I don’t know what I would have done. I didn’t have anywhere to go to, I was in a mess, and I was struggling. Back then, if I would have thought of an option then I would have never reached here. I am interested in directing, but nothing apart from that.”

Kartik’s popularity with the youth has pushed him into the top league. “My relevance comes because of my youth connect, and that youth connect is because I am a film-watching audience. I am in that age bracket where these are the people who watch films.”

Despite tasting success in Pyaar Ka Punchnama series, it was really Luv Ranjan’s Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety that really catapulted him to the big league. It was after this film that people who matter in the industry started to notice him. He spoke to Rajeev Masand during the recent Jagran Film Festival. “It was a film that actually changed my life. My character of Sonu was an author-backed role and I feel we all need a friend like Sonu in our lives which is why this role is really special to me. After the film’s success, I started getting attention from the right kind of people. They started noticing me the way I wanted them to notice me. I started getting response from the people who I wanted to work with,” News 18 quoted him as saying.

His next film, Luka Chuppi, too became a major hit. For it, he had to shoot in his home-town Gwalior and the experience was quite a ‘starry’ experience for him. The latter report quoted him as saying, “It was starry shooting in my hometown. I truly felt like a star there. The entire area around the shoot location used to be blocked. It felt like as if I was some politician and if I’d raise my hand then people might start chanting slogan-- ‘Humara neta kaisa ho, Kartik bhaiya jaisa ho’ (laughs).”

Kartik will be seen next in Imtiaz Ali’s sequel of his 2008 hit Love Aaj Kal. In the film, he co-stars with Sara Ali Khan. He has been shooting for another film, a remake of the 1978 classic Pati Patni Aur Woh, where he co-stars with Bhumi Pednekar and Ananya Panday.

Does Kartik have any specific plan in the next five years? “I’ve always had a dream of buying a sea-facing house in Bandstand and I’m definitely going to fulfil it. Apart from that, my five-year plans keep getting changed. But on the professional front, I think I’m already living my dream by working with the directors I always wanted to work with,” he told Masand.

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