Arjun Kapoor was approached for Ek Villain eight years ago
Bollywood actor Arjun Kapoor on Thursday said he was destined to be a part of “Ek Villain Returns”, the sequel to 2014 hit "Ek Villain" which he could not do due to his prior commitments. The Mohit Suri-directed action thriller features Kapoor alongside an ensemble cast of John Abraham, Disha Patani and Tara Sutaria. The movie is a follow-up to the 2014 original, which starred Sidharth Malhotra, Shraddha Kapoor and Riteish Deshmukh.
At the trailer launch press conference of “Ek Villain Returns”, Kapoor revealed that he wanted to work with Suri on “Ek Villain” but could not as he was busy with "Tevar", which was produced by his father Boney Kapoor.
"That time I was doing my father’s film ‘Tevar’ and I couldn’t do it. And this time, when he (Suri) came to me, I said it is destiny. It was meant to be that I am a part of this film. I decided to not let it go,” the 37-year-old actor told reporters.
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Kapoor said he has never been scared of playing grey characters in his career.
"I have been fortunate from my first film that there are enough shades in the kind of roles that I have done, whether it is ‘Aurangzeb’ or ‘Ishqzaade’. I have never been scared of playing the grey, and so it is exciting for me to come back to where I started,” he said.
“I have done ‘Half Girlfriend’ with him (Suri), ‘Ki and Ka’, ‘2 States’, I have done all sorts of films. I always wanted to go to the dark side and to do it in this kind of a set-up and the script, which was good,” he added.
Kapoor was all in praise of Suri for the way he presents his villainous characters on the big screen. Giving the example of “Murder 2”, the actor said he was amazed by Prashant Narayanan's performance as the antagonist in the movie.
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"When you have a director who can bring out that darkness and have a story, it is great. Every villain has an origin and a story that I found exciting.
So the trust that I had in Mohit and the team, with the producer and having such an ensemble, for me it was a no brainer (to do ‘Ek Villain Returns'),” Kapoor added.
Abraham said when he heard the film's script, he was floored by it "It has an unbelievable story. Mohit has executed it even better. It is fantastic,” he added.
The 49-year–old actor, who has played unconventional characters in the past in films like “Dhoom”, "Jism" and "Shootout at Wadala", said "Ek Villain Returns" is kind of a "homecoming" for him.
"It is homecoming for me. When I first started with films like ‘Jism’, it was like a negative shade. Sometimes it is boring to play a hero and it is good to play something different,” Abraham said. Produced by Ekta Kapoor under her banner Balaji Telefilms and Bhushan Kumar’s T-Series, “Ek Villain Returns” is set to hit the screens on July 29.
