Kiara Advani says she never looked at Kabir Singh as a hero in any manner

Last year’s blockbuster, Kabir Singh surely changed the course of her career. Since then, Kiara Advani has been on a roll with several big-ticket films and another major hit (Good Newwz; 2019) under her belt. But even now, the actor gets questioned about the Shahid Kapoor-starrer and her ‘submissive, weak’ character in it even as a section of people felt that the film endorsed toxic masculinity. Kiara, on her part, is clear that she “didn’t look at him (Kabir) as a hero in any manner”.

“He was a flawed person with lots of issues. Plus, for me, it is purely a film and a fictional account. More than anything, it’s just a story between two people,” says Kiara. “In hindsight, I also feel that the film was eventually loved so much because we got really immersed in it while watching, and since everyone got so much into it, we turned them (the characters) into mortal beings and debated on it as if they really existed. But at the end of the day, they are just two characters with their own journey,” she says.

Talking of Kabir Singh, the young actor says she had an “unbelievable” experience in Chandigarh. “There’s no denying that Kabir Singh has been a big breakthrough [for me] and I think I realised it only recently, when I, along with Akshay (Kumar) sir, went to launch the song, Chandigarh in Chandigarh. For the event, around 8,000 people turned up from the Chandigarh University. They had turned it into a concert of sorts. And when both of us went on stage, 8,000 boys and girls started chanting, ‘Preeti, Preeti’, and for the first time I felt, ‘I know that Kabir Singh could be a fabulous movie and it’s done what it has done, and has got a lot of love too but this kind of experience will always be a special feeling,’” she says.

In fact, the MS Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016) actor recalls getting “frozen” at that point. She says: “You know, I feel the same warmth and love from the industry, too, but when you are standing in front of 8,000 people chanting your character’s name, it’s overwhelming. I just froze and had no words. And I wanted to thank all of them. But I forgot everything that I had to say, because I was really taken aback and overwhelmed by the kind of immense love and attachment those people had with my character,” concludes the actor, who has multiple releases such as Laxmmi Bomb, Indoo Ki Jawani, Shershaah and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 lined up this year.