Arjun Mathur: I am now an International Emmy nominated actor, it feels pretty good to say that

Actor Arjun Mathurs says after going through several career related doubts and insecurities for long, when something like this happens, it changes everything, and gives hope.

The International Emmy Awards 2020 nominations have been announced and the actor who has earned a spot this time is Arjun Mathur. He has been nominated in the Best Performance By An Actor category for Made in Heaven for his portrayal of Karan Mehra in the web series. And he sure is elated, but understandably “still in shock”.

Arjun Mathur has been nominated in the Best Performance By An Actor category for Made in Heaven in the recently announced International Emmy Awards 2020.

The actor was “clueless” till a friend informed him about the recognition. “Getting the award isn’t even a thought; I mean this nomination is enough. The jury have got so much work from all over the world and picked you and two-three others. I really can’t believe it,” he shares.

Radhika Apte had a Best Actress nomination at last year’s Emmy.

Mathur says the credit is never his alone. The first thing he did was to call Zoya Akhtar and Nitya Mehra to thank them because it’s their creation and for providing him with the opportunity.

“What’s more amazing is that we go through years in our career with all these doubts and insecurities and not feeling good enough, and then something like this happens, and that’s it. Signals like this give you hope. It tells you that both happiness and rejections are fleeting, you just need to keep walking,” he adds.

One would expect an international recognition like to translate into career opportunities, but Mathur doesn’t look at it like that.  

“I can’t say. I just know that I would like to keep my own expectation tempered because having high expectations only leads to disappointment. I’m now an International Emmy nominated actor, it feels pretty good to say, now I would little more known in the international arena. But as far as the industry here is concerned I can’t speak for them. At the end I’m just an actor waiting to be cast, and it’s for filmmakers to decide if they want to work with me,” he adds.

Mathur as Karan was well appreciated. But this isn’t the first time he played a homosexual character. He played similar roles in Mira Nair’s Migration (2007) and Onir’s I Am (2010). “It has been a risk every time because you run the chance of being written off,” he says.

So is it right to say what Bollywood didn’t do for him, web did? But the actor does not want to look at it that way and asserts that it’s all about well-written content. “This project was made without keeping any commercials in mind, so an actor like me could be cast in a leading role. What matters is content reaching worldwide. The advent of streaming world made many things possible. Bollywood is doing what it does best. That now there is no limitation as to what content we put out is enough. I hope actors feels more inspired to look to other avenues; take risks rather than only trying for big budget A-list Bollywood films. I hope content keeps getting better and holds more weight and power over stars and everything else,” he adds.

Mathur also hopes that medium related division should diminish. “Cinema is as credible as TV, as credible a projector, as credible as a streaming platform or for that matter even a stage, and some performance on the road. It’s just a way of telling a story. I think it’s all about taking the right product to the audience without too much of noise,” says Mathur, who’s looking forward to Made in Heaven season 2 and other projects to start.

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Author tweets @Shreya_MJ