Shahid Kapoor says he was ‘depressed’ during Vivah after 3 flops, asked Sooraj Barjatya if he wanted to replace him: ‘People didn’t like me’

He shared, “I was going through depression”. He recalled that they had been shooting for Vivah for 8-10 days when Barjatya came to his vanity van one day and Shahid was sitting in a wedding costume as they were to start shooting the wedding scene. This is when Shahid asked Sooraj if he wanted to replace the actor. “I told him ‘Do you want to change me?’ So he said ‘What happened?’ I said in one month, three flops… nobody has seen (that). Obviously, people don’t like me because this is with all the other actors who are superstars and they are doing really well, I was the reason why they didn’t want to see this film and he just kept looking at me,” he shared.

Shahid shared that the director must have wondered, “If my hero’s state of mind is in this shape, how will I make a good film?” That’s when Sooraj told him something that has stayed with him. “He looked straight in my eyes and he said ‘Do you know what to do between action and cut? Do you know how to do your job as an actor? I said I do. He said ‘that’s it, just focus on that, everything else will come and go’. Since then that’s what I do, I focus on my job, success and failure come and go,’ he shared.

The actor said that the universe created by Barjatya in Vivah was not relatable for him but he depended on his director to transport him into that world. “The fact that it was something that I hadn’t experienced, the fact that it was out of my universe, what I had been exposed to, is what fascinated me and drew me to that subject,” he said. He then laughed and shared that he had never used the word ‘jal’ in his life but relied on Sooraj’s conviction throughout the film.

Also starring Amrita Rao, Vivah turned out to be one of the more successful films of the year and brought Shahid out of a career lull.