Shahid Kapoor and Mrunal Thakur are looking forward to the release of their upcoming sports drama Jersey. The film is the Hindi remake of Nani’s Telugu hit of the same name and is all set to release on April 22, 2022. The actors sat for an exclusive and candid conversation with PeepingMoon.com ahead of the film’s release and spoke about the film, sharing screen space with Shahid’s dad Pankaj Kapur and more. Shahid also spoke about his acting journey as he completes 20 years in Bollywood.

During the interview, Shahid was asked about his take on acting profession, on stardom and to comment on his learning as he is about to complete 20 years in Bollywood since his debut film Ishq Vishk released. Talking about his chose profession, Shahid said, “It’s a big question but I think, I just feel it’s the best profession to be in and the worst profession to be in. If you have the capacity to be able to take the best and the worst, then I think it makes you, I don’t know it can do a lot for you as a person, there are many lessons that you can learn, there is a lot that you are experiencing which can give you a lot of emotional maturity and a lot of clarity about life or it can completely mess you up so it can go either ways, it’s that kind of job.”

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He further said, “I have worked very consciously to kill all the complexities and stick to the basics of ‘why I came here’ and ‘what I think life should is about’ and ‘what acting and cinema should be about’ and I think everybody (I am speaking from my own experience) gets so engulfed and engrossed and overtaken and overpowered by everything that is behind the camera, all the things that are going on, all the things that people are saying, what’s happening with you, there is so much to deal with, you know and creative people are emotional beings that sometimes it takes a toll on you and you lose yourself and if you can find yourself in the middle of all that chaos then you’ll be one of the strongest people you know; so that’s what you can take away from these 20 years. Be strong and get through the storm because it’s beautiful on the other side.”

Shahid’s Ishq Vishk was a stupendous hit that also starred Amrita Rao, Shenaz Treasurywala, Vishal Malhotra and Yash Tonk. The film was directed by Ken Ghosh and became a rage amongst the youth when it released in theatres in 2003.

(Transcribed by: Vandana Srivastawa)