Kartik calling Kartik

Stardom may not have changed his life overnight, but Kartik Aaryan’s rise to the top has begun, and there’s no stopping him now

- Radhika Agrawal

We all know a guy in our friend circle who takes pride in delivering Kartik Aaryan’s breathless monologue from Pyaar Ka Punchnama. It’s not very often that an outsider’s debut film gains cult-like status in Bollywood, but that’s the effect his performance had on today’s generation. “Luv sir didn’t try to make a newcomer into a big hero. The relatability factor was high because he wanted me to play a regular guy,” says Aaryan, a few minutes into our telephonic conversation for the August cover story. Through their first film, he and director Luv Ranjan established a bond that would later manifest in hits such as Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 and Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety. In fact, Ranjan is known for casting his OG gang in almost all his films, perhaps an indication of a friendship built on the shared experience of being outsiders in an otherwise exclusive industry.

THE BOY NEXT DOOR

Through his characters in movies such as Akaash Vani, Luka Chuppi, and Love Aaj Kal, Aaryan has perfected the portrayal of the boy next door. The anxiety and fear of being typecast, however, is not weighing heavily on his mind. “I believe that relatable characters can never be typecast,” he says. But that’s not to say that he can’t pull off a completely different avatar. The moustache man from Pati Patni Aur Woh, Chintu Tyagi, is testament to the fact that the audience enjoys watching him, regardless of which character he’s playing. “To be honest, even if I was given the role of ‘the boy next door’ for the rest of my life, I’d be happy,” he says.