DNA Exclusive: 'Qubool Hai 2.0' actor Karan Singh Grover reveals he would like to reprise THIS iconic role

One of the most iconic roles Karan Singh Grover played on screen is Asad Ahmed Khan in Zee TV's daily soap Qubool Hai. Now after nearly eight years, the handsome hunk is reprising his role for ZEE5 original web series Qubool Hai 2.0. With this show, Karan is reuniting with Surbhi Jyoti who is reprising her role as Zoya Farooqui in the web show. Ahead of the streaming, we caught up with KSG for a chat where the actor spoke at length about playing Asad again, another role of his he would like to reprise. Karan also described his 17-year journey as an actor and praised Ekta Kapoor for launching him. 

Excerpts...

Qubool Hai 2.0 is not a continuation of the TV series but is the character sketch similar to what you played earlier?

It's the same character with the same backstory and the same family. The only difference is that there he was into architecture and civil engineering in that as a profession and this is he is a world champion shooter. This is the reason why he gets picked up by RAW for a particular mission. Like it's in a different universe, Zoya's character is also the same. Her backstory is changed a little bit, her family is changed.

Was it easier or difficult to get back into the same character after a very long time?

Some people might call it, we call it a pro, or a con, it's that I put in a lot of hard work into creating Asad when we first made the show. There's a lot of hard work that I had to do because the character is very different from mine. He is the opposite and is very minimalistic in his expressions, his movements and everything that he does. So there I was like full veiling training that I put into it. The thing is, Asad was always with me, the characters that I really put myself into this stay with me, it's very unhealthy. It's a very heavy character, uske rooh pe bohot wajan hai because of his childhood, so emotionally, it's not a good thing to carry some weight around. But he's always been there. So getting into him was not a problem at all. I'm probably sounding crazy because I'm talking about him as a separate person. I am not really a good actor, I have to be the director when I'm portraying it, otherwise, it feels fake to me and then that will show up. I fear that my audiences see that I'm faking it, it's very unhealthy. But works for me as a profession.

How was it reuniting with Surbhi Jyoti after these many years?

We have been in touch on and off. It was not on an everyday basis as she always been a friend. Firstly, it didn't feel like we are shooting after eight years. It felt like we met yesterday and we shot now, it's the same. You just have that with some people with friends especially. 

When you were offered the web series, what was your instant reaction, were you excited to play the iconic character again?

When I first got a call, it was from Gul Khan, she's spoken to me about Qubool Hai 2.0. When we finally began the whole process, she was not a part of i. I was very happy that I got to play Asad again. I was even happier with the fact that it's in a different universe in a different scenario. There are tons of changes, a few things that add an edge adds a few dimensions to it. Everything about it was exciting.

You have been a part of all three mediums be it TV shows, web and movies too. Is there any difference during the shooting process?

From an actor's point of view, there's no change. As I said, I have to portray a character and tell a story, which medium it is on, the art process doesn't change. Especially all of us who have come from the college of television, we had on the job training. I had no acting experience and there are a lot of people who are new acting who are put into Balaji school of training, shooting nonstop for 24 hours, 72 hours, and you have to get it right no matter what. So that kind of has made us, we can adapt, we can overcome, we can improvise anything at any time. No matter how long the scene is, we don't need time to get into character to do something. Thankfully, I was put into that in the beginning only in fact, training has helped me so much. When I am shooting for a film there's a lot of pre and post discussions, readings and more, which is very good. That is how actually the process should be. But we were trained to like shoot 18 minutes of footage every day and after the break, we didn't know which scene we have to shoot because woh scene aaya nahi abhi tak. People who are not from television are like, 'Are you guys insane?' There's no prep time. 'Dude, We were born during prep time. Our prep time is every second of the day, so we are ready. But the process of an actor's shooting for any kind of medium doesn't change the thing for me.

You have been a part of the entertainment industry for many years, apart from Asad, if you get a chance which other character you would like to reprise?

Yes, Dr Armaan from Dill Mill Gayye! I don't know why is that even a question, you knew the answer (laughs). Armaan is like me, that's fun. It was a fun show to shoot. We were like friends and classmates having fun. 

How was the whole shoot experience as you entirely shot in Serbia for a long schedule?

I knew before going to Serbia how cold it is going to be but you don't really know. We live in Bombay and when I am not in Bombay, I'm on the beach. We're not used to the cold at all, but I need the air conditioning on. Otherwise, I'm in the open, I'm fine. We knew how cold it was going to be but you don't really know what that cold is like till you get there. It was bone-chilling cold, it was like two degrees some days, some days zero degrees. I was like, 'what's the temperature', so they said 'Zero' What does that mean? You have no temperature. Like today, there is no temperature, it's zero. Due to the whole COVID thing, there are so many things that get added. I've had timetables, my whole day starts from the time I wake up at 5 am. So my whole routine is quite ritualistic and there's a lot that COVID has added to it now. During the whole cleansing and wearing the mask, we took all precautions and that was mandatory. But still, two days before the shoot ended, I got COVID-19, but a lot of people on our set got it. Even though they're only 10 people on the set.

Going by your work, you have been an actor for nearly 17 years now. If you look back, how would you describe your journey as a whole?

ow that you have mentioned, I don't think I have done much, I can do more. So we'll work on that. But I've been very lucky. Staring with Ekta Kapoor, she's a great creator, she knows what she's doing. She has an eye for the present, past and future. So being selected by her at that time, and then getting to work with her again in the new version of this show that I did in Kasautii Zindagii Kay. Then I did Dill Mill Gayye as Dr Armaan, then Qubool Hai, the films till now. I've had really nice, good roles and good characters that I played with great people around me, a great environment. So in all, I think it's been a really good learning process. Now that I think of it, I could have done a lot more, maybe some reality shows, I assume. It's been a good life.