I'm not at a stage where people come to theatres for me alone

I saw an interview of Aamir Khan some time back where he said, ‘If you want to judge the stardom of an actor, you do not track his most popular film, you track his weakest film.’

- POOJA BIRAIA JAISWAL

Nearly a decade into your career, do you think you have now become a star?

If his poorest film—one which you know is not good—still brings in the profits, that is stardom.

Today, the line between popularity and stardom is blurring. Now the popular is the star. In actuality, a star was someone who was the reason people watch the film, irrespective of whether it is good or bad. I do not think I have achieved that till now. If I do a film that, from the outset, people are not sold on, it will not do the numbers. They will wait, especially now that they know the film will come on OTT in seven to eight weeks. Those are the choices even I make as [part of an] audience. I do not think I have reached a point where people actually come to the theatres for me alone. That will come after a string of super hits. As of now, I need the full support of brilliant directors and brilliant films. The films [have] to be bigger than me and that is how I like it, too. The stories should be the hero of the film and I should be riding on those stories and those characters.

Sam Bahadur clashed with Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal at the box office. Did your film perform as per your expectations?

With Sam, we always knew it was a Test match; we knew it was not the quintessential masala film that Animal was—it had the shock value and one knew it would create waves at the box office. We knew we needed that much time, that word of mouth, for the film to resonate with the masses. Because if it would not click with people, it would not do well no matter when it released. People started talking about it more and more as the weeks went by. We saw that through January, Sam shows kept going on, and that gives me tremendous happiness.