Dostana 2 was announced back in 2019. Along with the excitement of watching Kartik Aaryan and Janhvi Kapoor together for the first time, the audiences were intrigued with the casting of television actor Lakshya. However, the film fell through due to ‘professional circumstances’ and Dharma Productions in their official statement added that a recasting would happen. In 2022, Bedhadak was announced with Lakshya and Shanaya Kapoor as leads, but even that rom-com got shelved.
After facing two misadventures on a back-to-back basis, Lakshya finally marked his big screen debut with Karan Johar and Guneet Monga’s Kill – billed as Indian’s most violent film – which is currently running in theatres. Though he has been winning critical acclaim for his performance in it, Lakshya in an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha reveals that the last few years were rather ‘turbulent’ for him.
Opening up on how he was affected with Dostana 2 and Bedhadak being shelved, he tells us, “My first film didn’t work out for me. The second film also didn’t happen for me. Samajh nahi aa raha tha ki Bedhadak hogi ya nahi hogi. Somewhere, I was losing that confidence as an actor and human being. My morale was shaking and going down. It wasn’t like I had given up but I was constantly asking myself, what’s next?”
Talking about how that period also led to ‘a kind of desperation building’ within him, he says, “I wouldn’t say that I was feeling under-confident because that’s a very strong word but it really affected me deep down. I needed a film desperately. I needed work. I kept hearing that I’ll be making my film debut but it was just not happening. I didn’t know if things would pan out.”
But how was his experience being on the set of Dostana 2 with Kartik and Janhvi? “I was sweating. You feel the pressure of being on a Dharma set. I remember having a long walking shot where I didn’t have to say any dialogue. And it’s not like I was excited. I was only nervous. I did 600 episodes on television and I knew how to face the camera or walk. Everybody knows how to walk! But I remember trying to figure it out because I had to acquire a certain kind of gait for the character. I was scared that I would trip,” Lakshya recalls.
But it also proved to be an epiphany of sorts for him. “At the same time, I realised what a different high it was to be on a Dharma set. What can be bigger than that for an actor? Dostana 2 had a big scale and production value. It was the kind of set you only see on television or the big screen. It took me seven years to make it to Dharma. I learnt that you’ve to keep working hard, be patient, resilient and grounded. Yeh sab sirf bolne ki baatein nahi hoti hai. I took back the value of being hopeful,” shares Lakshya.
