Arjun Kapoor made his Bollywood debut with one-film-old Parineeti Chopra in Ishaqzaade in 2012, which became a massive hit. Their onscreen romance and camaraderie as Parma and Zoya were particularly appreciated and it became one of the most adored reel-life couple of the year. But did you know that initially Arjun was not in favour of Zoya’s casting and thought his career would be over if he had to work with Parineeti? In an interview with Mashable India, the actor revealed that he found her to be too flippant and uncommitted to the project. Here’s what had happened.
As quoted by the Singham Again actor, he cracked a joke with Parineeti the first day they met on the sets of Ishaqzaade, and Parineeti just replied “LOL” instead of laughing. Arjun did not like her habit of talking in emoji and Gen Z language, and gave him the impression that she’s not serious about her work.
Annoyed by this, Arjun shared, “I said ‘Can you just laugh?’ It’s not a chat. So, I used to find her irritating,” adding, “Mai 6 mahine se wait kar raha hu ki Zoya mil jae and Zoya aa ke ‘LOL LOL’ kar rahi thi. I was like ‘My career is over. This girl is not interested.”
But Arjun’s perception of her changed soon when he discovered how great she was. “She had fire in her eyes. I was in shock. From that moment, I realized she would nail it,” he admitted.
Ishaqzaade, the romantic thriller film was written and directed by Habib Faisal and produced by Yash Raj Films. Parineeti earned a National Film Award – Special Mention for her performance in the film, and was nominated for Best Actress at the Filmfare Awards, while Arjun was nominated for Filmfare’s Best Male Debut.
