Arslan Goni likes to tell stories his way

Actor Arslan Goni, who made his Bollywood debut with Jia Aur Jia in 2017, enjoys writing as well.

Talking about Jia Aur Jia, which also starred Kalki Koechlin and Richa Chadha, he said, “I always wanted to be an actor. I hail from Jammu and I went through lots of auditions, but things were not working out the way I wanted so I shifted to the corporate sector and started doing a job. One fine day I got a call from writer Mudassar Aziz for Jia Aur Jia. Kalki and Richa were very professional and didn’t make me feel like a newcomer. The film was good, but it took more than two years to complete and the film couldn’t do well but it was noticed.”

After that, the kind of offers that came his way, he didn’t feel like taking them up.  “I realised I had a flair for writing and developed scripts. One was romantic comedy and another was thriller. I haven’t taken any formal training in writing per se, but have learnt to tell a story my way. Both the stories are sold and I’m writing more scripts. Pandemic happened and the entertainment industry was at a standstill for a while, so even that caused delays. Now I’m working on a project which I can’t talk about, things are falling into place,” said Arslan.

He has mostly kept a low profile. “I’m a very private person. I mind my own business. I’m focused on my work. I’m a social person and as normal as anyone else, but I’m not a social media bug. Maybe that makes people think I’m low profile. I’m very much open for relevant interactions even with the media and I do open up with people I hang out with,” he said.

Now, he wants to do roles which add value to the script. “I have no hang ups about doing only certain kinds of roles. As an actor, the role has to satisfy me as an actor,” he said.

OTT is a big platform now, and he feels that its existence cannot be denied and ignored. “OTT boon is here. Post-pandemic it is more in the limelight, one can watch stuff on OTT anytime as per one’s convenience. The content quality is good and variety is also there,” he said.

He recently featured in Mai Hero Boll Raha Hu. “The experience was fantastic, Ekta had full faith in me and the character, and it really worked for me. I still get lots of compliments for the role of Lala,” he said.

As for the TV industry, he said that its existence cannot be denied. “It has its own audience. Reality show space is very different from daily soaps. I have no intention of doing TV as of now though I would be open to hosting a reality show or a chat show,” he said.

His idea of happiness is to live and let live. “It is nice to be important but more important to be nice. Life is in the present neither in the past nor in the future. I need my space and I take it when I need it. Good food, good intelligent company, quality time with myself and acting are what make me happy,” he said.