After sporting a salt-and-pepper unkempt look in Mere Dad Ki Dulhan, Varun Badola returned to television after five years with Itti Si Khushi, in which he plays an alcoholic father to six children, a character that is both flawed and layered. Ask him whether such roles ever make him worry about changing or rebuilding his screen image, and Varun says, “I have never bothered about my screen image. I played a mentally challenged character in my first show Koshish – Ek Aashaa. If I had to be scared, I should have been scared then, because what could be more daunting than that? I still vividly remember thinking, ‘I do have a choice. I can say no and walk away. But if I run now, the world may or may not know, but I will always know that I ran.”He adds, “What did I come to Mumbai for? Either I came to be a celebrity or to be an actor’. There is a very thin line between the two, and it often gets blurred. All our hard work starts going into becoming a celebrity. And who doesn’t want that? If I get the chance, I would love to be one too.”Does he consider himself a celebrity? He replies, “My job is to act. Whether I am seen as a celebrity or even as an actor depends on the audience. What I truly want is to be known as a good artiste because that keeps me honest in my work. If I am not recognised for being good at my craft, then that is a problem. The celebrity quotient is transient, which is why I never took it seriously, even 20 years ago. A doctor who saves a life is also a celebrity, though we do not talk about it enough, so for me, simply being on TV or working doesn’t mean much. What really matters is your worth in society, and there are so many people far more deserving than I am who quietly do their work without any recognition.”
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