Babil Khan: I came in the industry with my heart and arms open, but it broke me
Babil Khan talks about his transition from an excited newcomers to a serious actor, and how the industry pushed him towards losing that child-like excitement
Babil Khan entered the Hindi film industry as an excited newcomer, but four years down the line, the actor has experienced a drastic shift in his persona to a more serious outlook. Ask him about how this shift happened, and he shares, “I saw this (actor) Ranbir Kapoor’s interview with Nikhil Kamath, where he wore this t-shirt that said authenticity is transient. I related to that so much.”
Elaborating on it, the 25-year-old says, “We are in a public space and we have limelight on us, so you get stuck to an image, and you are subsequently told ‘abhi aap yahi ho’. But I am a human being, and I will change as a person. Everyday my truth will change, it will evolve and become something else. You aren’t going to be the same person you were four years ago. Four years from now, I will probably not be the same, I’ll be something else and I don’t know what I’ll be. But that’s the point, not knowing where you’re going but just go to try.”
Reflecting on how the industry played a part in this change, the actor who returned to the screen after a one-and-a-half-year gap with Logout recently shares, “I came in the industry with my heart and arms open, but it really broke me as a person. It hurt me a lot. I dealt with a lot of pain and anxiety.” However, he sees them as blocks that built him to be a better person: “I wouldn’t trade that for anything because it gave me the perspective to look at other things in the world. It made me look at the things I was passionate for as a child. Anything that happens to you, you must look it at as something that is happening to help you evolve. The more you point fingers and ask ‘why me’, it stops you from growing as a person.”
While Babil insists that his perspective has changed, his priorities still haven’t. “If I am not jumping around, it doesn’t mean my priorities, or my values have changed. It’s just that every day you go through something, and it changes your perspective. You don’t change as a person, but your perspective needs to change and evolve. Kindness is still the top priority for me as I think without kindness, humanity is doomed,” he ends.
