You’ve seen Appurv Gupta’s hilarious side during his stand-up comedy sets but he is all set to broaden his creative horizons with Sudhir Mishra’s upcoming film Afwaah starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui aen Bhumi Pednekar. With over 500 million views on social media, Appurv Gupta who has performed all around the country and garnered love from his fans plays an integral role in the drama film that is all set for a theatrical release on May 5.
In an exclusive interview with News18 Showsha, Appurv Gupta talked about his transition from a stand-up comic to an actor, his experience working with big guns, his role in Afwaah and more. Here are the excerpts of the conversation.
Appurv Gupta On Donning The Actor’s Hat In Afwaah
It was quite organic only. I have been in the industry for the past 10 years and I keep getting some auditions for some ads or some role. But to be honest, in the beginning, I was not very keen to do these kind of ads or roles. From past two years, I thought let me try my hand in acting. And the moment I got the opportunity to audition for the movie Afwaah, that when I got to know the director is Sudhir Mishra. I was more than happy. And I think the role that I am playing is quite important in the movie. So I was very happy and content that I am playing a good role in a movie as compared to another filler roles that the audience would like to see of a stand up comedian. A major shift will happen the moment I am on screen.
Appurv Gupta Gives A Sneak-Peak About His Character In The Film
My character is little shady, self-centered who knows a lot more things about social media. He is very smart and he knows when to enter and when to exit any kind of team. So he knows about his business in an out. He doesn’t care about anyone else. My role is majorly with Sumeet Vyaas only who plays one of the lead. I knew him before the movie also but on the sets, he made me comfortable. Like I have done so many shows but acting is something I was doing for the first time. So there was definitely some bit of anxiety there. But the production team made sure that I should not feel uncomfortable. I was quite happy with the experience. I thought it could in a different direction but everyone was focused, made sure that I also get the vibe in the next few mins and after 30-40 minutes, it became smooth.
Appurv Gupta Reveals That Afwaah Explores Themes Of Rumour Mongering
I feel as the title says, these days because of social media, no one knows what is factually correct or what is a rumour. It is a movie that definitely share a bigger message in addition to the entertainment. Because these days, you are believing in whatever you see on WhatsApp or social media. I feel the relatability factor would be there because at any point of time, you definitely must have entered the trap of rumours where you felt like this is something I should forward but after some time, you get to know it was fake.
In that way, this movie will add value and give the lesson. After this movie, people will start focusing more on like what they are sharing with their friends and family. It will serve the purpose.
Appurv Gupta Shares What Interested Him About This Film
Since the character is very strong and it defines how the movie would advance forward after a point of time, so that is again one of the important part. And I wanted to play something which is not funny as my debut. Because whenever we think about a stand-up comedian, they’ll be typically getting funny roles or timepass roles. I don’t want to do such cliche things. Because standup comedy is evolving so why do such things which most of us has seen in the past. I thought let’s do something which is meant for my face and which should justify a bigger picture. There were many points, one is Sudhir Mishra who is a legend, secondly the topic is quite interesting and something which serves a bigge picture. And thirdly, the character will change the story at some point of time. The best part of preparation was Mukesh Chhabra and the casting team because they chose the actor that can do it naturally rather than preparing for it. Something that aligns with the director and actor’s vision. I am not a trained actor.
Appurv Gupta On Preparation For This Film
It doesn’t matter how much you prepare, same happens in standup comedy also. Doesn’t matter how much you prepare, the moment you go to the stage, everything will depend on that particular point only. Major chunks was with Sumeet Vyaas and he is a great, professional actor who has been doing this for 10 years. The best thing about professional actors is the fact that they can change their persona in a fraction of a second. Like he is chilling with me between takes and the moment the camera roles, the character comes out of them. As a stand-up comedian, that’s a quality that doesn’t come to us since we are the same on stage and off stage. Stand up comedy is all about how natural you are or how transparent you are. This is something I want to learn in acting. I feel I learn it over a period of time if I spend some more time with these professional actors.
Appurv Gupta Didn’t Get The Chance To Show His Humorous Side On The Sets
I wanted to but the moment I went to my shooting location, unfortunately at that time heavy rain was going on in that particular city. It was torrential and things were getting flooded. Because of these things, we didn’t get much time because when this kind of setup is involved, everyone wants to focus on the thing that they complete the schedule that is chalked out for them. So we couldn’t get time to have fun because things were going forward in a consolidated time pace. To be honest, I was doing this for the first time, I was also conscious about not over-doing things because this is not my home ground. I wanted to stay as focussed as I could.
Appurv Gupta Calls Sudhir Mishra A Magician
I think he is a magician. I am fan of him since Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron when I got to know that he wrote the script and Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro was one of the cult movies. But I feel like he also knew that this is my first movie and since he is a senior director, he knew I would fumble a bit, I would be scared and might not deliver a natural performance at first. He was calm and patient and he kept doing certain things so I could open up to that environment. As a director he knew what he wanted and he made sure I’ll be able to deliver. We both kept trying and I was lucky that I could work with him.
Appurv Gupta Quips About Any Reservations Or Second Thoughts He Had Prior To Embarking On This Journey
I didn’t think that it might impact my professional career. This is just a character and it’s not like this is who I am in real life. It’s a movie and a character that I wanted to play and that’s it. Because of stand-up comedian image, I wanted to play a different role so that people could differentiate that this is a different life where I am funny and make people laugh and this is a totally different kind of character, different side of character. The key is choose a role very specifically that this role I should do and this role I should avoid. The problem might come when you start playing all the roles. That is the reason why my major bread and butter would be stand up comedy so I am very okay to say no to roles.
Appurv Gupta Shares What’s More Challenging, Acting Or Stand-Up?
To be honest, there is nothing challenging in any field because stand up comedy was the toughest thing that I have been doing. Going on the stage and making people laugh was a tough job indeed but over the period of time, I realised this was something I wanted to do. Same thing with acting, I experienced it was tough on the first day and first shot that acting was very difficult but eventually I realised that this is something I could do. But yes the difference between stand up comedy and acting is that in stand-up comedy, you are very impromptu, you wrap up the thing in an hour. In acting, you have to shoot a scene in 5-6 different ways. I had no idea this amount of to and fro happens in cinema. In stand up comedy, if one joke goes flat, you cannot do it again. You move on to another joke. Standup comedy is meant for maximum 500 people or 5000 people, a movie is meant for 10 lakh 20 lakh crore. Because when you are creating a larger picture, creating content for a larger audience, you don’t need to mess up even for the smallest of things. You want everything to be perfect.
Appurv Gupta Answers If Stand Up Comedy Will Saturate The Audience In Coming Times
In India right now, you can say that 15-20 crore people are watching standup comedy and those are the people who are also watching everyone’s content. I’ll give you a simple example that in USA, standup comedy started in 1950s and till now, there has been no saturation. The problem will come in your second question because since it’s a growing market and everyone think that huge money is there, popularity is there. People will come and there will be some who would do desperate things, deliver bad content that shouldn’t be there or low quality content. That will happen and can happen with any high budget industry like Bollywood, Music, Cricket, where a huge sum of money is involved, the quality will definitely suffer.
Appurv Gupta Has No Recent Plans To Launch A Comedy Special
Right now I feel like I am not prepared. I can do it at any point of time, it’s just that I am not ready for that because of you are uploading 75 min or 90 minute of content, it should have a message, it should have a purpose. It cannot be like you are mixing YouTube videos and uploading together. Unless and untill I don’t feel like it, I can’t do it.
Appurv Gupta On Juggling Between Stand Up Comedy, Startup And Acting
At the end, we are using our face only whether we are doing stand up comedy or whether we are doing acting. Everything will go on distribution channels only. I don’t think it will create any problem because it will eventually reach people whatever I am doing. You just have to prioritise. My first love is YouTube and standup comedy but if I get something very unique, I’ll take that up.
