How do you react when people call you Jadoo?I don’t really know what they mean by calling me Jadoo. I think it’s the magic of the movie that has really worked. It’s astounding that I am the same actor who was written off by the critics before the film’s release and then was given the best actor award by the critics themselves. This reflects the precariousness of an actor’s career. We are mere puppets in the hands of a director. In Koi. Mil Gaya, you appealed to children and now in Lakshya, you are wooing the youth.I think everyone will have something to identify with in Lakshya. Children will realise that there will come a point in their lives when they will be at the crossroads. The youth will wonder, like my character Karan Shergill, what to do with the rampant globalisation and too many career options. Even I have been where Karan was, but thankfully I’ve passed that stage. You mentioned Koi’s Rohit excited you so much you couldn’t sit and talk about him. Does Karan of Lakshya do the same for you?In Karan’s case, the excitement is of a different kind. While shooting for Lakshya, I faced physical hardship. It wasn’t easy shooting for the film. You wanted to kill your director Farhan Akhtar, didn’t you?There were times when I wanted to strangle both Ritesh (Sidhwani) and Farhan. Some days were very exhausting. But the journey was well worth it. Farhan’s made me look good and has given the character larger-than-life proportions. Since Farhan is a day older than you, he could bully you, right?He is exactly a day older and you are right, he took a lot of advantage of this fact. When I used to crib, he used to say, “I am a day older to you, so do as I say.”
