Karan Kundrra: I was worried that I’d copy Ian Somerhalder

There is little Karan Kundrra has not tried on screen in his decadeplus run in the industry It looks like the actor has not had his fill of the supernatural after MTV Fanaah In his latest offering Tere Ishq Mein Ghayal he is seen as Veer Oberoi a werewolf Kundrra admits that the show is heavily influenced by The Vampire Diaries and on his part it has been a challenge to not ape Ian Somerhalder In a candid conversation with midday Kundrra discusses the pressures of playing the characterIan Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev in The Vampire DiariesEdited excerpts from the interviewYou have done a supernatural show before Did you have any reservations about repeating the genreWhen I heard the storyline and character brief I was excited I however didnrsquot think I would be able to do justice to the hectic schedules that come with television shows because over the past few years I have gotten used to shooting for finite series for OTT platforms But what is life without a bit of challengeHave you seen The Vampire DiariesOf course Who hasnrsquotBesides the premise of two brothers falling for the same woman are there any other similarities between the two showsIt does look like the international show thatrsquos why people are comparing them But fantasy supernatural shows are a limited genre When we think of the genre we immediately think of Twilight Dracula or The Vampire Diaries For instance if you talk about two brothers and their mother one immediately thinks of Karan Arjun 1995 or Deewaar 1975 For me as long as the audiences are drawn to watching the show it is worth itWhen the show was offered to you did you ask the producers whether itrsquos a copy of The Vampire DiariesActually that was my first question laughs It is obvious and I am a big fan of the show and Ian Somerhalder I was worried that I would copy him Having said that if we had made an exact copy of The Vampire Diaries why would anyone watch us They might as well watch The Vampire Diaries againAlso ReadGashmeer Mahajani I was offered the show at Jhalak finaleWhat new aspects did you explore as an actor on this showVeer Oberoi is a challenging character because it can easily slip into the caricaturish zone When someone plays a negative role they end up making it an allblack antagonist but they are not real There is no Mogambo Amrish Purirsquos character in Mr India in real life neither are there absolute good guys Veer has his own standard of good and bad he does not care about what people think of him He is unapologetic and intense It becomes difficult to make such a character rooted to reality which is what I am trying to doDid you fear being influenced by Ian Somerhalderrsquos portrayalYes during certain scenes I felt I am emulating Ian Somerhalder and then it would strike me to portray the scene in my own way Do you know the amount of pressure on me right now Before other people can I have put myself under pressure Sometimes when I do certain scenes in romantic shows the director says lsquoTere andar ka Shah Rukh bahar aa gayarsquo And I offer to do another take As an actor you have to keep ensuring that you bring your own touch to the characterDo you think television has been affected by the OTT boomIt was definitely affected because television was not churning out new content during the lockdowns So a section of people who earlier didnrsquot have access to OTT were forced to explore it As a result people got accustomed to a different kind of content We are breaking television stereotypes with shows like Tere Ishq Mein Ghayal and creating content that people expect