Mihir Ahuja opens up on his equation with Vijay 69 co-star Anupam Kher, how life changed after The Archies, it’s mixed reception and future projects After working with actors like Suniel Shetty and Neena Gupta, actor Mihir Ahuja got to collaborate with actor Anupam Kher in Vijay 69, and he still gets goosebumps thinking about it. “As actors, everyone looks up to these veterans. Everyone has a dream to work with them and it’s a learning just to be on screen with them or watch them perform. He wishes me good morning almost every day and vice versa. He’s like a very good 3 AM friend for me now,” says Mihir Ahuja.
Ask him about his experience of working with Anupam Kher and he says, “If ever in your life, you think of giving up, you can just look at him. Age is just a number, it is just in your head. You are and can be fit in every age, if you think you are fit. That’s when I learnt from Anupam ji.” The actor shares that even he underwent a rigorous training in swimming, cycling and running for his role in the film: “I had to look like a proper athlete and I didn’t want to fake it.”
Recently, Mihir also clocked in a year of his breakthrough film The Archies, and he insists that the film has had a huge impact on his career. However, the film did receive mixed reviews on its release. Mention that to him and he says, “Of course, some people loved the film and some didn’t. We’ve got freedom of speech in this country and people can say whatever they want. Everyone would not like everything, and we were also not making the film for everyone. If some people didn’t like it, it’s fine. But I was appreciated for my performance. So, I was happy that people could resonate with my character.”
Up next, Mihir has the Indo-Australian project Hindi Vindi with actor Neena Gupta and he asserts that the working style in India and Australia are “pretty much similar”. “The only things different is thattheir working hours are less. Here we shoot for 12-13 hours a day but there they have 8 to 10 hours of shoot max. They also don’t shoot on weekends. As an Indian, who is so habituated of working every day, I was like ‘What are they doing? Let’s shoot, let’s not take a break.’ Eight hours were too less for me. I was in Sydney for 50 days and I was playing an Indian kid born in Australia, so I also had an accent, and it was very interesting,” he shares.
Mihir played actor Mona Singh’s son in web show Made In Heaven 2, and for his next series, he is reviving this equation in a different setting. In Ma Ka Sum, Mihir plays a 19-year-old genius who attempts to apply mathematical principles to find his mother’s perfect romantic match. Excited about this reunion with Mona, he says, “Oh my God, I love her. The first time I just had 15 days to work with her, this time I had 50 and she’s so good. She’s such a good human being and such a good actor. I just love working with her.”
