We were lucky to be part of the supermodel era: Arjun Rampal

Arjun Rampal is producing his next movie, Daddy, which is based on gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli. The actor, who has also produced I See You (2006), now believes he should “be far more actively involved in film production”. He says, “I understand the business better. There are wonderful stories out there that need to be told.”

Arjun will play the lead role in the movie, but he says that he will not necessarily act in all of the movies he produces. “There is a lot of talent out of there I would love to work with. Wearing a producer’s hat would be something I’d enjoy, and it would allow me to be the contributor I want to be, to an industry that has given me a lot,” he says.

Ask Arjun, who was a supermodel before he started acting, if the era of supermodels is over, and he says, “I think that’s changed all over the world. We are just following the same pattern. It thrived in the ’90s, with Cindy Crawford and the gang abroad, and Mehr Jesia Rampal, Milind Soman and me here in India. We needed fashion icons then, because fashion was growing rapidly. Also, new designers were coming in.

“A designer wanted a muse — that was the trend. Then, the fashion industry grew so large that you didn’t need these faces to be your launch pads. They began approaching celebrities, sportspeople and actors to become the face of a brand. It is more driven by personality than by looks or physique. It is not about supermodels anymore. We were lucky to be part of that era.”