People want to discuss taboo topics: Ayushmann Khurrana

The actor feels fortunate that in this process he found directors whose creative vision was so original that it blew him away.

Ayushmann Khurrana has never shied away from featuring in movies dealing with taboo topics. He says the success of his films such as ‘Vicky Donor’, where he played a sperm donor, and ‘Shubh Mangal Saavdhan’, where he is seen as a man with erectile dysfunction, reinstated his belief that people in India want to discuss taboo topics.

Directed by RS Prasanna, ‘Shubh Mangal Saavdhan’ released four years ago. It talked about a shy boy named Mudit, who before his wedding, discovers he suffers from erectile dysfunction.

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Ayushmann said: “I debuted in Bollywood with a bold taboo subject of sperm donation in ‘Vicky Donor’, thanks to Shoojit Da, and that showed me how the audience was changing and embracing subjects that were disruptive.”

The actor, who is called as the poster boy of content cinema, added: “With ‘Shubh Mangal Saavdhan’, I returned to this territory with Aanand L Rai and RS Prasanna. Their genius was in sensitively showing a subject like erectile dysfunction and making it entertaining and supremely palatable for audiences to engage.”

It was the success of the films that made Ayushmann sure that the audiences want to talk about these topics. “After ‘Vicky Donor’, ‘Shubh Mangal Saavdhan’ reinstated my belief that the people of India want to discuss taboo topics out in the open and in their own way address them for the good of society,” he said.

The 36-year-old actor said that the success of the film told him to stay on course and try to bring more such themes out of the closet and into mainstream cinema.

“I felt that having a discussion on these things was necessary,” he said.

Ayushmann credits ‘Shubh Mangal Saavdhan’ for changing the course of his career.

“‘Shubh Mangal Saavdhan’ gave me the courage to pick my subsequent films and put all my faith behind it,” he said.

The actor feels fortunate that in this process he found directors whose creative vision was so original that it blew him away.

“I thank everyone associated with this film for empowering me to become an artiste who relishes in sparking conversations in India. I want to do just that through my next few films like ‘Anek’, ‘Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui’ and ‘Doctor G’,” he says.