Bhuvan Arora opens up about Farzi 2 and handling expectations from the sequel

For Bhuvan Arora the time between auditions and landing a role is never time wasted The actor who believes in making the most of the journey rather than obsessing over the destination has several projects lined up With the second season of Dupahiya streaming since October and Farzi 2 underway Arora is keeping busy In a conversation with midday he discusses the progress of the Shahid Kapoorled series handling the expectations of a sequel and his upcoming projectsExcerpts from the interviewFor a long time time supporting characters were considered secondary to the leads Do you think OTT has changed that perceptionI come from a film school We were basically taught that everybody is a hero of their own lives So whenever you do a project or whatever your selection criteria might be later in life always remember you need to see the story above your character And this has been my approach till date I think itrsquos very selfish of me to think how is my part Thatrsquos the second priority the first is always the story I do think OTT has contributed to it but I also feel that when Sholay 1975 released there was no OTT but we still remember Surma Bhopali played by comedian Jagdeep and the Jailor Asrani I believe when you do good work it will be recognised I am working as hard as I did in my fivescene role in Shuddh Desi Romance 2013 as I am doing nowLR Shahid Kapoor and Bhuvan Arora in lsquoFarzirsquoWhat is the status of Farzi 2Wersquore shooting it right now Itrsquos going great but thatrsquos all Irsquom going to say People who are making it are trusting me to keep the story under wrapsDoes the success of the first season put pressure on you while working on a sequelFear or pressure mdash itrsquos never really going to help me Itrsquos only going to spoil my performance and hamper my mindset There is obviously a little bit of excitement but there is no pressure And by the time you start to take pressure about things it is already out of your hands as yoursquove already finished shootingLR Bhuvan Arora and Sparsh Shrivastava in lsquoDupahiyarsquoYou have another sequel with Janaawar Tell us about your role as SI Hemant KumarItrsquos a heartland story a whodunit Unexpectedly season one got a lot of love In fact Sonam Nair director of Dupahiya Masaba Masaba absolutely loves the show Hemant comes from an underprivileged background and has faced racism all his life Wersquore taking the story ahead this time while building on the existing charactersWhat else are you working on at the momentI am working on a Telugu film called Rowdy Janardhana led by Vijay Deverakonda and Keerthy Suresh I have already wrapped up a film with Manisha Koirala called Haqdar produced by Arbaaz Khan And two more interesting projects are coming upWith so many projects coming your way do you feel yoursquove established yourself in the industryIrsquom sure everybody has a different opinion But I never saw my journey as a struggle Itrsquos not some dilemma that you had to go through I hate the word struggler which is often tagged to new actors I enjoy going from studio to studio for auditions it was a way to meet other actors have chai gossip learn new things and observe people I enjoyed that process When I was starting out there were 20 other unemployed people with me so I never felt aloneOn lsquoDupahiya 2rsquoThe makers of lsquoDupahiyarsquo took a shine to Arora during the filming of lsquoFarzirsquo 2023 ldquoIt seemed like a sweet script and we laughed a lotrdquo says the actor who admits to playing ldquooverthe top characters on screen for a whilerdquo He was offered both Bhugol eventually played by Sparsh Shrivastava and Amavas but chose the latter ldquoAmavas felt a little more layered So I sort of chose that on purpose And people have loved both seasonsrdquo he saysDid you knowlsquoFarzirsquo creators Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK spotted Bhuvan Arora in a Flipkart advertisement before casting him in the role of Firoz