Farhan Akhtar talks about being paired up with 'Rock On!! 2' co-star Shraddha Kapoor off screen as well
Farhan Akhtar and Shraddha Kapoor
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Rumours about his off-screen bonding with co-stars merely crack him up, insists Farhan Akhtar, as we sit down for a chat in his vanity van at Bandra's Mehboob Studios, where he is promoting his next, 'Rock On!! 2'. "It could get awkward minus the humour," he says when asked about recent rumours of link-up with Shraddha Kapoor.
"It is unfortunate that actors are forced to develop a thick skin. It is bad enough when untrue things are said. Over time, you are stripped off of the energy, battling things that have no substance. How can Ritesh [Sidhwani, production partner at Excel Entertainment] and I fight over Shraddha? The idea of casting her came from him. He'd seen 'Aashiqui 2' (2013) and 'Ek Villain' (2014) and loved her voice. He was adamant that she play the role. Be it my so-called split with Ritesh or my various liaisons with women, I let it pass," he elaborates.
How does he have fun when home-breaking stuff is written about him? "Did you know, at one point, I was with three women at the same time? I was also supposedly moving in with Kalki Koechlin. She sent a hilarious message that read, 'Dude, things are moving very fast between us. Don't you think we should meet once before we move in'. It was hysterical. I responded to her saying, 'If not anything else, let's meet and discuss the colour of the walls, at least'. We laugh about such things just to normalise things. We let people have fun while we laugh and move on," he adds.
Kalki Koechlin
Farhan admits the rumours, at times, do put him in a spot of bother. "You have to be cautious when you meet that person next time. When you work on a film, friendships are formed. It is not so clinical that once you wrap up, you don't chill together ever again. When you meet those people after long and want to catch up, you have to do it discreetly because of prying eyes. Most of those eyes are watching it from some sort of creatively tinted glasses already. I have tried hard to not let such things affect me when I am promoting [the film] with Shraddha."
Ask him if his 'single' tag is triggering it, and he says he has been linked to co-stars even when married to celebrity hairstylist Adhuna Akhtar. The couple separated earlier this year. "My marital status is not linked to liaison rumours. When people have to write stuff, they do. Who says what to whom goes around as Chinese whispers."