Exclusive: Kohrra star Barun Sobti doesn’t like playing goody-two-shoes roles with no conflict

Barun Sobti has been in the entertainment industry for more than a decade now. Be it cameos or full-fledged roles in television shows like Dill Mill Gayye and Iss Pyaar Ko Naam Doon respectively, his fandom and popularity have far exceeded the ordinary barometer by now. While the latter show made him a household name, he‘s currently headlining a slew of terrific shows laden with diverse content such as Asur, Badtameez Dil, his next thriller – Kohrra and then he has a period drama titled Dunali too in the mix.

In a candid conversation with Filmfare, the mysteriously charming actor gets candid about the complex mind he has ingrained that does not allow him to settle for vanilla roles, how Asur’s storyline where mythology meets science left him pleasantly surprised and a few BTS anecdotes from Kohrra with the director Randeep Jha that’ll get you all the more intrigued to binge-watch the series. Excerpts…

What are your takeaways from shows Kohrra and Asur ?

I got lucky for one. It gets tougher, especially the place where I am right now is a very precarious situation where you keep looking for only genius stuff. It’s a good place and a tricky slope to be in at the same place. Concerning why this kind of stuff is offered to me is surprising. I am always surprised when people want to cast me in such a well-written thing, leaving aside the stature and plan initially of the show. I was very excited and surprised.

How was it like working with director Randeep Jha again, you have collaborated before but Kohraa is a whole new theme to dabble in…

He’s like a child on set when he’s working. He’s so excited about what he is doing. So am I but doesn’t show much on my face Randeep has this visible and infectious energy that he spreads on the set. It’s something new. Everyone was on the same page when we started. We spent way too much time discussing before we started because we did not want to waste time on having a conflict. No one was trying to upturn anything or upstage anyone.

What is it like to be a part of showrunner Sudip Sharma’s world of storytelling? 

I love his work, I have watched all that he’s done because it is the kind of content I love. It is an uncomfortable thing but for people who don’t know me, I have a very complex mind. Despite the fact I have not gotten many roles like that, exactly why I haven’t worked so much. In Sudeep’s world that happens of course. There are two things, there is a world that he has created and is in his head, you only get to be a part of it as a performer and then there’s a very decent world, where everything he has written, gets shot. 

What was your reaction when Asur was offered to you?

I had no expectations from a serial killer story, from a mythological thriller from an Indian writer. The first thing that came to my mind was – Why me? I am sure there have been a lot of actors who would have dropped it for it to come to me.

Did you ask if you were the first choice?

No one reveals that. They always go like – of course, you were the first choice. Maybe I was. The producer believes in my work. He backed me up when the time was very precarious.

It takes quite a bit to understand what your character in Kohrra is up to…

This is where Randeep came in very handy. Not on the set but how he explained it to me. I’ll tell you a little anecdote that will make you understand what he meant to do with his character. The bodies being discovered was the first shot we did. I was kind of fully immersed into this desi Punjabi thing I became for the show and the body language of course. So there was this scene where I was standing in a certain way in that scene. So Randeep came and said – “Everything’s great, just don’t stand that way.” I was standing in a weird Punjabi cop way and I wasn’t able to digest it. I was like I have worked so hard for this role, how can I go wrong with the first scene?  Even in the first scene, he was so focused on how the character will progress. It was instilled in me on the first day, I was told in the beginning how the graph of the character is going to progress. There were some horror stories we were told by the writers of the shows about how things happen in Punjab and I didn’t want to challenge that.  

It feels like it’s based on a true story….

I am not saying this is a true story, but with all the reality that has been shown in our show, I would tell the viewers to do yourself a favour and don’t challenge it. I don’t know how much you will find on Google. We told ourselves very early on that this show is about the colourful state of Punjab more than what the crime is. It is about interpersonal relationships, it is about the politics in the family because of money, land, property, industry, and kids at times. We always thought of it like that we did not look at it as the representation of crime in Punjab.

You were shooting for Asur, Badtameez Dil and Kohraa all simultaneously…

I shot  for Asur and Badtameez Dil at one point in time. I shot Kohrra and then there is a period drama I shot called Dunali, a little bit of it together. At one point in time, I was shooting for three different characters and stark differences. Asur, Badtameez Dil and Kohrra were all different. It was tough. It was fun.

You did Asur with Ridhi Dogra and then you guys segued into an easy-breezy rom-com like Badtameez Dil.

She shared something with me the other day like parallel universes in the lives of Ridhi and Barun but the thing is, with acting, you get to choose exactly what you want to do. So you should not shy away from challenges and the approach that Ridhi and I have are the same. We are too hell-bent on doing it right. I see it with Ridhi, that is how your attempt should be to do the job in hand the best you can. Achieving the look for such different shows is the difficult part because it is a physical attribute. As many calculations as you do in your head, you can’t just stop looking the way you are. With Ridhi it was different because we have been long-term friends and we both understand how much we value our craft so it makes it easy.

What do you find most exciting about playing layered characters?

I find it very difficult to play these goody-two-shoes characters if there’s no conflict. It does not happen in real life. And if it does then now is not the time to tell those stories. It is a complex world we live in, I can see that because I am a cinephile, I love watching stuff and judging it. I rather do things that are difficult for me to comprehend. As you said in Kohrra, it comes to you slowly. If there are no layers in your character then where’s the fun?

Does your family approve of these dark shows you do?

My wife watches everything. She is very tough that way, critical and strong-hearted. I might be doing well in my life, but I am most grateful that my wife likes my work. She is very critical, she will just say this is not worth watching.

The blurring of mediums now when it comes to actors, you already were a household name with your television shows before transitioning into OTT…

There’s not a lot of blurring honestly. Television is one of the toughest mediums, the way it hones your skills nothing else can. People who come from television have done a decent job compared to actors who have come from established families. So I think they deserve a chance.

Are we going to have Asur season 3…

That depends on Gaurav. His intention was  I will write a second season when I have a better story compared to season 1. I think Asur is one of those shows where season 2 is better than season 1 and that is rare. When he has an idea for season 3 which is better than season 2 we will do that.