From an intense lover boy to a brooding villain, Arjun Rampal has done it all. He doesn’t often soar when he flies solo; it is in an ensemble cast that he makes his presence felt. “This is how I survive in the industry. I play characters,” avers Arjun, as he prepares to talk about his original web series, The Final Call, on ZEE5. Based on Priya Kumar’s novel I Will Go With You: The Flight of a Lifetime, Arjun is playing a pilot undergoing mental trauma in the series. Excerpts:

What kind of preparation did you undergo to play a pilot?

I didn’t have any experience of flying an aircraft. I have been inside a cockpit once. My obvious demand was to take me inside the cockpit of an airplane to understand things better. I did the flight simulation training where they use virtual reality to teach. I understood how to use the throttle, working with radars, what to press when you talk to a base and what are the different codes.

Like many other recent works, does it also aim to understand the mind of a defence person?

The main character here is not driven by nationalism or patriotism. Here is a pilot who was associated with the Air Force and some events have left unbearable imprints on his psyche. The show attempts to understand the mind of the protagonist. The focus is on the mind because as a pilot a lot depends on his mental focus. The mental disturbances, what all goes into his decision-making, has been dealt with in detail. I think more than external activities, if you try to understand the mind of the protagonist, it would help you understand what is driving him.

Once upon a time, there was a general perception that you are demoted if you work in television. Do you think a similar comparison exists with a web series too?

I don’t think that if you do some work on the OTT platforms you are being demoted, because the budgets here are comparable to cinema and sometimes much higher. Here, we are actually in competition with international platforms in which all great filmmakers from across the world are showcasing their content. The bar has definitely gone up.

Because of your modelling background, you were always praised for your looks and screen presence. Did you have to make efforts on acting to come out of that image trap?

Yes. Sometimes it is frustrating when people say that you look good in the movie and they don’t say anything about the performance. Acting, which should be the parameter to judge an actor, sometimes is not discussed. I always care about my performances. I think that has gone away with time maybe. I don’t look that good anymore (laughs).

Physical presence, that is the screen presence, is really important for an actor and it is humbling if I have that. How I look is not something of my doing. That credit goes to my parents. If someone is coming to watch me and not getting engrossed in the character, then obviously something is wrong.

How helpful was the deep baritone?

I don’t know. With time you understand how to use your voice according to the need. It is a part of the training that you do to throw or modulate voice. I don’t agree with the analogy that voice makes you a good actor. Sometimes, you are a great actor by not saying anything — pauses, gestures, expressions say a lot.

How has your approach to make the directors understand your process been?

It’s very important to have a good friendship and to understand what is his vision. Each one has his own style. Some people are minimalistic, but some directors want it loud. When I was doing Raajneeti, I asked Prakash (Jha) to change the sequence where Ranbir’s character was killing a cop, and I asked Prakash to give that to me because it was more convincing, and after a few days, Prakash did come to my room and told me that I was right on my part and then we improvised the scene together and it came out really well. If I have material to share, I do that with the director. Things were different with Ashim (Ahluwalia) on Daddy because he is someone who likes minimal action and a lot of internalisation goes into understanding the character. Then someone like Farah Khan likes it loud. I still remember a sequence from Om Shanti Om where I was saying the ‘Ek chutki sindoor’ dialogue and I was going too intense but she asked me to go loud. ‘I don’t need Brando here,’ she shouted. ‘Stop mumbling, kuch sunai nahi de raha’. I retorted that she was making me overact, but she had orchestras and band in the background score in mind, while shooting.

You are also a producer now. Any learnings?

I have an idea about spending money on films and I know that films don’t fail but the budgets fail. So if you know how much you should spend on a kind of film, it will determine its business. And the rest is about taking chances.