An actor of enormous caliber, he manoeuvres across genres with seamless ease. There’s a charismatic charm to his portrayal of Sree in Sandeep Mohan’s Shreelancer. He’s as impeccably menacing as a gun-for-hire in Rohit Mittal’s noir thriller Popcity. Like many hopefuls who come to the elusive city of dreams, Arjun Radhakrishnan arrived in Mumbai 10 years ago to pursue his only passion. The Pune-bred actor worked in FTII student films while dabbling in theatre alongside, before landing his first lead role in Shreelancer in 2017. As he gears up for his first mainstream release with Nagraj Manjule’s Jhund, we caught up with the actor for some fun rapid-fire questions!
1. What are you watching right now?
The Wire
2. The last good film/web series you saw?
The Night Of (HBO)
3. A favorite classic?
The Godfather, Singing In The Rain, Nayagan
4. A film you’ve seen the maximum number of times?
Ocean’s series, Fight Club
5. A director you wish to work with?
Mani Ratnam, Sriram Raghavan, Abhishek Chaubey, Shimit Amin, Dileesh Pothan
6. The best film you’ve seen so far in 2021?
Joji, Nayattu, Karnan, Another Round
7. What are you reading right now?
The Black Swan by Nicholas Nassim Taleb and Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti
8. Your favorite performances in the recent past?
Pratik Gandhi in Scam 1992 and Jaideep Ahlawat in Paatal Lok
9. A film that changed your life?
I grew up watching Agneepath, Hum, Parinda, Nayagan, Kireedam, Apoorva Sagodharargal, Rangeela. So, these are some of my early influences.
10. What was your first job?
Call centre after I failed a year in engineering!
11. The toughest thing about being an actor?
Spending time between projects. “Who you are when you have nothing to do.”
12. If you could change one thing about the film industry…
To experiment with more genres of films
13. If not an actor, you would be…?
Nothing else
14. Do you remember the first film you saw?
Honey I Shrunk The Kids at a theatre in Pune when I was 5. My first Hindi film was Haathi Mere Saathi.
15. What are you working on next?
I am currently working on Rocket Boys, where I play a young APJ Abdul Kalam, directed by Nikhil Advani and Abhay Pannu. I recently finished a Malayalam film called Pada, directed by Kamal K.M, whose debut film was ID starring Geetanjali Thapa), a Marathi film Vaat directed by Miransha Naik and Jhund by Nagraj Manjule.
