Bollywood underrates me: Arunoday Singh

Actor Arunoday Singh, who has been a part of the Hindi film industry since 2009, feels his talent is under-utilised, and says Bollywood underrates him.

Arunoday made his acting debut with Sikandar and later featured in films like Yeh Saali Zindagi, Mirch, Aisha, Jism 2, Main Tera Hero and Mohenjo Daro. He says it's very difficult to get films in which he plays the lead because he is not "wildly famous".

In a career spanning nine years, why has he done only handful of films, Arunoday said "I am a good actor but I am not wildly famous. It's very difficult to get films based on lead roles because I haven't earned that level of box office success and that's how it should be.

"These things are about business after all. So, I get a limited number of options available to me in terms of roles." 

The actor, 35, feels his brawny built restricts him too. 

"I am also very large, so I can't be cast in everything. I am just little on the large side. So, I know that limits me a little as well. So, of all the roles I get considered for an audition for, I try to choose the best I can. I try the best with the films I get," he added.

Does he feel like an under-utilised talent in Bollywood?

"I have not fully been utilised, that's true... But I don't think I have fully understood what I am capable of either. It's a limitation. Bollywood underrates me and I underrate myself."

"So, one day we would get over it together," added the actor, whose latest big screen outing, Irrfan Khan starrer Blackmail, has brought him a lot of attention.

Arunoday has featured in films of a variety of genres like romantic comedy, romantic thriller, erotic thriller, romantic action comedy, vigilante crime drama, socio-political drama and epic adventure.

But he says it was never a conscious choice to do genres of films as different as chalk and cheese.

"If it was a conscious choice, then it has failed because I got slotted anyway. But it was not a conscious choice. I just like doing different things. It appeals to me or the part appeals to me," he said.