You have so many offers coming to you so as an actor it is all about finding which project to invest your energy in.
To be honest, making films is so expensive and their shelf life is limited. On the web, content remains... you can watch it after five, eight, 10 years... There's a huge audience and content on the web is accessible at the click of a phone.
Empathy is much bigger than sympathy. When the character is empathised with, that means you have succeeded as an actor. So even if it's a villain, the audiences don't hate you... they understand why you have turned into a villain.
I don't know if I can call myself the poster boy. But yes, I am fortunate that a lot of work that I did was on the web. It has definitely got me some really good roles and a great audience.
I do not like to label the characters I am doing or even myself as a particular type of actor. I try to do different kind of roles which are not the same 'hero' or 'villain' kind.
In most of our love stories the people are quite young in age. 'Once Again' is a love story about two mature people looking for companionship.
Adopting mannerisms is called mimicry. That is not a good way to do things. You don't start to imitate somebody, the way he walks and talks, that is a very irrelevant element of acting.
I've always looked towards mainstream. Many offers have come but they've been the wrong kind of offers. They are not the right business decisions for me to take.
Actually, I came to Mumbai from Jamshedpur in 1991 to become an actor. I began searching for work and I was all alone and absolutely empty-handed, no craft and nobody that I knew.
My biggest inspiration has been life for me. Basic survival has been my biggest teacher. Surviving in Mumbai for so many years has been a huge ordeal.
Every choice I'm making now is so that I can keep working for the next 30-40 years in this industry. These are not creative choices. These choices are to stay in the business, for many years to come.
But I'm very keen to work with directors such as Imtiaz Ali, Zoya Akhtar, Farhan Akhtar, Vishal Bhardwaj, Abhishek Chaubey, Anurag Kashyap and Abhishek Kapoor.