I am not working to please an audience: Arjun Mathur
Mumbai: Arjun Mathur has never been "calculative" about his career as the actor says that the aim has always been to choose those projects which will neither bore him nor turn him into a predictable artiste.
Mathur, who has been in the industry for more than a decade, found global success with his 2019 series "Made in Heaven", which earned him an International Emmy nomination.
In an interview with PTI, the 40-year-old actor said his decisions are dictated by his instincts and never engineered to please a crowd.
"I am not calculative about my career. I am not working to please an audience. I am working to please myself. If there is an audience which ends up connecting with the stuff I do, then great.
"My primary intention is to put myself in characters that would take me to new places and keep myself satisfied. I want to keep doing something new and not become bored and predictable. My intention is not to connect with 300 crore people. The primary motive is to do what makes me happy and then be happy with the by-product of that choice," Mathur said.
The actor said he is aware that not every project will see the phenomenal success of "Made in Heaven" but hopes to find more ventures which reach out to a wider audience.
The show focused on two wedding planners -- Mathur's Karan Mehra and Sobhita Dhulipala's Tara Khanna -- navigating the big fat and often complicated Indian weddings while balancing conflicts in their own life.
"A project like 'Made in Heaven', which touched this kind of height and scale, crossing barriers of nationalities, genders and age, being loved across the board is quite rare. It is best we don't expect that out of every project. It was a special project and one can hope to be a part of more such projects through the course of our career," he added.
Mathur, who has also featured in films such as "My Name is Khan", "Luck By Chance" and "I Am", said he knows that there is an audience that wants to watch his work but denied feeling burdened by the pressure of living up to their expectations.
"I don't take the pressure of the outside world. There is no part of me that thinks, 'I now have to do this because I had done something like that'. An actor can only choose the best from what is offered to them. The stuff that comes my way, I pick those which resonate with me. That is the only way I know how to work and I will continue this. I am sure this will take me to many more good and big projects," he added.
Mathur currently features in pandemic-set thriller series "The Gone Game", which returned with its sophomore season. The new instalment dives into the post-pandemic world where secrets of the lockdown are exposed.
While the first season was shot indoors in 2020, the sequel, directed by Abhishek Sengupta, moved out of the confines of actors' homes and was filmed on sets and on a bigger scale.
Mathur, who plays Sahil Gujral on the series, said the "novelty and experimental" aspect of the show had "disappeared" in season two but it allowed for the crew and actors to finally work with each other in a physical space.
"Through season one, we had no interactions with each other, there was no physical meeting at all. To see something we started shooting at homes and was so experimental turn into a full-fledged shoot... It was good to see that growth. Season one was born out of necessity, season two carries forward the franchise," he added.
Also featuring Sanjay Kapoor and Shweta Tripathi Sharma, "The Gone Game" season two premiered on Voot on July 7.
