Kunal Kemmu: People Were Actually Moved By My Performance In 'Zakhm' And I Seriously Considered Pursuing Acting After It

From being a child artiste to turning a director, Kunal Kemmu has come a long way in his career. He is multi-talented. Kunal started his career as an actor at a very tender age. Little did he know that he would take acting as a profession till 'Zakhm' happened and he was praised for his performance. In an interview with Outlook, Kunal spoke at length about his journey from a child actor to becoming a prolific actor who has a huge body of work in different genres. 

Kunal's first show was a Doordarshan TV series 'Gul Gulshan Gulfaam' directed by Ved Rahi. Later, as a child actor, he appeared in several movies like 'Zakhm', 'Raja Hindustani', 'Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke', and 'Dushman' among others. 

My first question to the 'Kalyug' actor was if he wanted to act right from his childhood or if he was just an accidental actor. To which Kemmu said, "I think I was an accidental actor then. I didn't have any kind of ambition at the age of 6 or 7. It so happened that I saw my parents kind of working and they were doing a show called 'Gul Gulshan Gulfaam'. My father is a National School of Drama passed out. He was working with Shyam Babu (Shyam Benegal). He was working on the show called 'Discovery of India'. Even before that I had gone to a couple of film sets and had seen that my dad kind of worked in new sets and I had seen people in costumes. They were very interesting looking but I never had the interest...I was too scared of going in front of the camera or do anything. But when they were doing 'Gul Gulshan Gulfaam', I was in Srinagar studying there...I used to go to the sets sometimes and I kind of established a very good kind of relationship with the director and everybody who was on the show. One day he jokingly asked me, 'Do you also want to be on this? Then you can also see yourself on TV'. I thought why not and so ended up doing a cameo in that."

A year and a half later when Kunal and his parents moved to Bombay, the same director was doing another show for Doordarshan. It was an episodic show and he was doing it with his mother. The story was of a son and a mother. He asked Kunal's parents if he would be doing it. His parents told him to ask Kunal and he said 'yes' to it as he already saw himself once on television. 

Kunal added, "Somebody from the casting team of 'Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke' must have seen that and they reached out to my dad and he again asked me if I wanted to do it or not. I said 'sure'. So, that's how it happened. When I was doing it, I was enjoying and it was like a hobby. I liked the idea of watching a movie on the 70 mm screen and I was also there. And then when I saw people laughing at what I was saying in 'Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke', it kind of made me feel good. But I think seriously considered it after 'Zakhm' because it was my 10th and I kind of decided I was not going to act anymore and ended up doing that film. It was the first time I got a lot of attention as an actor. It was not just about me being a kid and people thinking that I am sweet looking and funny. But that was the first time I saw people actually were moved by a performance that I put in. And that's when I kind of really thought that this was something I might want to pursue seriously. 

Kunal has delivered some really stellar performances in films across genres, be it thriller 'Malang', period drama 'Kalank', and also proved himself in a host of comedies like 'Golmaal' franchise and the recently released 'Kanjoos Makhisoos'. When asked about what the process is like doing a comedy role and then switching to an intense role, the 39-year-old actor said, "This is such a subconscious thing that happens with me. I genuinely don't even see it as a process I just saw it as second nature because every time we start a film whatever the genre be, I  would like to spend a lot of time with the writer and the director before we kind of even get into what this guy is going to look like, what his costumes are going to be like. Then I understand where is this character being perceived from, and what are their expectations from the character and I just like to think about that part without the lines and the scenes."

"And I think that's where all the prep happens so that I know what the character is. You know a lot of times a lot of ideas come from that place where you have mentally reached a place where you...like when you are wearing the costume also and when you become that character...then it takes about.. sometimes it can take about one scene and sometimes a day for you to find that character. And it's not necessarily that serious stuff is easier or comedy stuff is easier. It's a different skill altogether but finding a character kind of is what is more important," he shared.