"Karan gave me the landline number to his office when I met him. I should have taken a hint there and then. But I was so excited! I even planned exactly when I would make the call: sometime around 11:30am, so he’d be done with breakfast and available to talk."

“When I was doing theatre in Chandigarh, I always played negative and aggressive characters, something that nobody could imagine me in. I did imagine myself to play a cop but maybe people did not. Anubhav Sinha sir also never expected me in the role of a tough cop. And that was the challenge. More than the character, it was the subject that intrigued me.”

“In this society, chauvinism is mistaken for chivalry. It's tough to change that. This film will trigger change in the right direction.”

“I think I’ve evolved as an actor. My performance was appreciated. People are saying I am not a one-film wonder. That’s the best part of being in this film.”

“When I auditioned for TV, they used to tell me all sorts of things. Some said my eyebrows were too thick. Others said my accent was too Punjabi. But I also knew that, being an outsider, merely auditioning for film roles wouldn’t have got me a film. You have to prove your mettle as an actor on TV or in some other medium. Be it me, Sushant Singh Rajput or even SRK and Vidya Balan – everyone has proven their worth on television”

“In Darr, SRK says that his height is 5’9" or 5’10", so I wanted to be 5’9", at least. I used to pray to God every day, ki bhagwan meri height 5’9" kar do. My father is 5’5" and my mother is about the same. So my hopes were really meagre. And then, I grew to five-nine-and-a-half! I was over the moon. I always knew that I had the talent, but height was a bit of a gamble.”

“Some people presumed I was just being myself in Vicky Donor, a Punjabi boy trying to find my bearings in life. I had to work much harder on this character in Nautanki Saala. I had to get into a different skin. And the bromance between me and Kunal Roy Kapoor is immensely liked as well.”