You grow from your failures: Aditya Roy Kapur on coming back stronger with Malang 

Aditya Roy Kapur paused for a moment before answering the question about Kalank (2019). The film, led by a powerful ensemble cast including Roy Kapur, Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, Madhuri Dixit, and Sanjay Dutt, was among the big-budget failures of 2019. But the actor confessed that it has not left him down and depressed. 

"I think you do grow from your failures. It is important to feel what you have to feel, and not brush it under the carpet. When it [a film] doesn't resonate, it can be upsetting," he revealed. 

Roy Kapur insists he is in a better space. The actor is preparing for Malang (2020), where he teams up with Mohit Suri, who directed his breakthrough movie, Aashiqui 2 (2013), and also has Anurag Basu's Ludo, and another film with Mahesh Bhatt's upcoming sequel, Sadak 2, in his lineup for the year. 

He said, "I am excited to be working with them again. Bhatt saab was involved with Aashiqui 2 [as a producer], but being directed by him is a whole different experience altogether. It has been six years with Mohit and me. When we were talking about this script, he was very clear that we shouldn't repeat ourselves. " 

This sense of repetition is what led the actor to take a sabbatical in 2017. 

The actor said, "It was not a sabbatical I had planned. It's just that it became one. As an actor, if you know you have something to prepare, one switch is always turned on. You are always thinking about it. Once that was switched off, you start exploring other parts of life." 

That, he insists, has changed his approach to the craft. "So when I got on set after a two-year gap on the Kalank set, I was approaching acting differently. I was feeling differently in front of the camera. Maybe because I had changed, or grown. I took it in my stride." 

He went on to add, "I've realized that it [box-office success] is an unpredictable thing. No one really knows what works or not. The key is to keep working and to love making cinema. The best part of this whole profession is that for me. That's the only thing I am passionate about. If I am not getting myself to do that, then what am I doing?"

With Malang, the actor will team up with Disha Patani, and Anil Kapoor, for an action thriller, a genre he has never explored before. Speaking about the film, he said, "The films I have grown up watching are those of [Arnold] Schwarzenegger, [Slyvester] Stallone, [Jean-Claude] Van Damme, and Jackie Chan's. I've seen their full filmography. I was that kind of kid. Somewhere it has always been in my blood. My friends have often told me 'Explore that. You have the physicality for it.' You just need that one person to see it. Mohit was that guy." 

Malang, also starring Kunal Kemmu, and is set to release on 7 February 2020.