Don't do everything for externa validation: Arjun Kapoor

Bollywood star Arjun Kapoor believes constantly seeking external validation through work rather than enjoying the process of acting can force a person to take wrong decisions.

Though the actor cares about results, he believes that alone should not be a deciding factor in one's choice of roles.

"If I do everything for external validation and proving myself, then I will make wrong decisions. In my career, I have realised that I can do anything if I have my conviction. We go wrong from time-to-time (and) that's human.

"But I have to be excited as a person to tell a story. I will be lying if I say I don't care about the results, we all do and we all must as it is result-driven business but that can't be the only deciding factor. I need to enjoy the process as an actor," Arjun told PTI in an interview here.

The actor, who most recently headlined Ashutosh Gowariker's "Panipat", says he if he was looking at proving himself, he would have stuck to the action image that he established early in his career through films such as "Ishaqzaade", "Aurangzeb" and "Gunday".

Instead, he chose to experiment with his on-screen persona with films like "2 States", "Finding Fanny", "Ki & Ka" and "Mubarakan".

"It's a privilege to have the right to choose. I could get typecast in the early parts of my career just as an action hero but I wanted to do all kinds of film also because there was a greed to learn from different people.

'Panipat' came to me at a point where I wanted to do such a film because it's a genre that I always wanted to explore. Without caring about what people will say, I just jumped on to the film."
"If my success barometer is only my Friday then it will be a problem. Every time, I can't think I am unsuccessful and think negative. Box office barometer matters but that's part of life and not the end-all of existence. There is more to life."
"Aditya Chopra rejected me three to four times and I don't know whether it had anything to do with my surname. When he saw my photos, he said, 'I can take you as a character actor'. Then I auditioned again for 'Ishaqzaade' and I got the film. I don't think my surname had anything to do when he was rejecting me either."