Actor Arjan Bajwa recently appeared on SCREEN’s Dear Me Season 2. Reflecting on his 25-year journey, he recalled being offered Fashion just three months after losing his father. Arjan also opened up about his bond with co-star Priyanka Chopra, sharing that he could sense the pressure she was under following her father’s cancer diagnosis.
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Talking about working on the Madhur Bhandarkar film, Arjan Bajwa said, “In a very unfortunate accident, I had lost my father three months before (Fashion), and I was not sure if I wanted to come back to Mumbai and work in the movies again. Till then, I had done some work, but after some time, when things got a little normal at home, I decided to return. While I was in Delhi, I got a call from Madhur Bhandarkar’s office, and they asked me to come and meet with them whenever I was in Mumbai. Two writers on the film were my friends. Madhurji knew me from before, and by then, I knew that Priyanka Chopra was doing the film. So I went and met them.”
Arjan revealed that he was not in the right headspace at the time of Fashion. He said, “I knew Priyanka from much before the film. The first time we met for the film was when Madhur sir had organized a dinner for the entire team at a hotel in Juhu. That meeting was good, but honestly, I was in a confused state at that time. My conscience was stuck because I had gone through such a tragedy at home. I was meeting everybody nicely, but I couldn’t feel anything. Inside my heart, I was hurting; I was not in the right headspace. I was in my own space at that time.”
During the interaction, Arjan Bajwa also spoke about his Fashion co-star Priyanka Chopra. “Priyanka Chopra had once told me that she was not aware who was being cast, and at some point I had given them my audition for Gulaal, and she told me the entire team was watching some film at a theater in Andheri. When she asked who was cast for Manav’s role, they showed her the Gulaal audition in the parking lot of the theater on a laptop. Later on, she told me she loved the audition, it was fantastic.”
Arjan Bajwa lastly revisited the day he and Priyanka Chopra bonded over their respective dads. He recalled, “On set, Priyanka and I bonded over talking about our dads. Priyanka’s father had been diagnosed with cancer at that time. Just 3-4 months back, my father had passed away, and we were just sitting and chit-chatting on the set one day. We started discussing our respective fathers. I told her my story, she was telling me her story, and I could feel the pressure she also had about her father’s health, and how things were going to be. What would happen? I used to meet her father, Ashokji; he was a very nice man and very cordial, He would be very nice to me, but destiny has its plans.”
On the work front, Arjan will be next seen in the Taiwanese film Demon Hunters.
