Anek: Ayushmann Khurrana talks about Hindi language row, importance of box office success and more | Exclusive

Director Anubhav Sinha's upcoming film Anek starring actor Ayushmann Khurrana in the lead role is all set to release in theatres on May 27. The film's trailer which was received well by the audience, release at a time when the industry was in the midst of a debate over the Hindi language being India's 'national language' and discussion around its importance, courtesy of Ajay Devgn and Kiccha Sudeep's Twitter spat. 

The trailer struck a chord with the audience as it highlighted how people from different parts of the country are discriminated against based on their colour, accent, looks and whether or not they can speak fluently in Hindi. 

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Shedding light on how important Hindi is as a language in India and whether or not is it justified to discriminate on the basis of what language one can speak, Ayuhsmann Khurrana, in an exclusive chat with DNA about his upcoming socio-political action thriller Anek said, "It is a default setting that more than 50% of people in India speak in Hindi." He added, "But that doesn't mean other languages don't deserve equal status or importance. This is not a country where one language is at the forefront." Ayushmann further said, "We are multilingual, multicultural and multiethnic. So, as a nation, we must give equal importance and status to all languages to keep 'Bharat' as one."

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On how one becomes an 'Indian', Ayushmann said, "You become an Indian when you respect everyone around you irrespective of their language, ethnicity, religion. Together...united... we are all Indians.  Our diversity is our biggest strength and weakness. It is upon us how we take it. If we make this (diversity) our strength instead of weakness, then we are a true 'Indian'."

Digressing to talking about how box office numbers are the talk of the town these days, when we asked Ayushmann how much box office success mattered to him, he said, "It really matters to me a lot, but this film shouldn't be seen from a commercial point of view. It is a film similar to Article 15 that nearly collected revenue of 60+ crores. Anek is not a 100 crore film, but a very significant film to watch."

He added, "I have done commercial films like Dream Girl, Bala and a lot more, and they were even successful too so I think I get my courage from here to do such bold, significant films like Anek. Of course, my upcoming films like Doctor G and Action Hero belong to the commercial genre but this film is important for the audience."

Talking about his inclination to the original content and not opting for South remakes which seems to be the current trend in Bollywood, Ayushmann who has worked in Shubh Mangal Saavdhaan, a remake of the South film  Kalyana Samayal Saadham, said, "There are actually 2-3 films of mine that have been remade in the South namely Article 15, Andhadhun and Badhaai Ho. So, maybe I am the only one whose films are being remade in the South and that's obviously quite a validation for me. Actually, I am more influenced by original content and I love doing original scripts."

So would he not star in remakes? Answering to that Ayushmann told DNA, "Never say never."

"Even If I have to do any remake then there should be atleast some originality or something different in the content that needs to be enticing enough, because as audiences we have become more global. When Hindi audiences are watching South films, then obviously the remake should be something different in order to deliver something different," he concluded.