Handsome hunk, Harshad Arora, has no qualms about portraying a negative character in the Star Bharat fantasy show, Mayavi Maling. He plays the evil prince Angad. “As an actor, it is very important to do different kinds of characters to prove my mettle. I always wanted to try out negative roles as well,” he adds.
“So far it has been good; my fans are happy. I guess what has worked is my more natural portrayal of the evil. I don’t go down the normal, loud, negative caricature. What is really heartening to note is that my producers are also impressed with my output, and want me to do more bad guy roles, calling this my best outing so far,” says Harshad, who has earlier done Dehleez and SuperCops vs Supervillains. His main call to fame was Beintehaa.
“All said and done, it is still early days. We have all the right ingredients- big casting, VFX effects; now it depends on how well the public likes the drama.”
Ask about difficulties in shooting with Chroma, rather than real live action, he says, “It is a challenge. Like recently, during a couple of fire scenes, we obviously could not light up the place due to safety issues. So I had to visualize the blaze and react accordingly. Agreed it is tough, but that’s what a true actor should be able to pull off.”
How do you work on the body language of the negative, as compared to positive? “Well, once you internalize the character, everything automatically falls into place. For then, you start to think like him, e.g. Angad will go to any extent to achieve his evil ends.”
Was it a bit tough to enact those mother-son scenes, since Aparna Kumar is not much older than you? “Well, age does not come in the way. As actors, it is our job to do our stuff as strongly as possible, rest all is secondary. Interestingly, even the lady who plays Chegu (Ankit Gupta) is younger than him in real life.”
In closing, we ask him about constant fan pressure for him to return to work with Beintehaa co-star, Preetika Rao. “Normally, makers don’t repeat the same pairing. But if some interesting story comes up, featuring both, then I will surely consider it.”
