Popular host and actor Gunjan Utreja will soon be seen playing a badass rockstar in his upcoming web-show ‘The Socho Project’. The actor – who was recently seen playing a passionate lover in his music video Judaai – took singing lessons and also learnt how to play the guitar to look and play the character Metal in the new show with perfection. Talking about it, Gunjan says, “Yes, my character’s name is Metal. He’s a gifted musician, a rockstar, but he’s an equally complex person and has various shades of grey to him. He has a lot of anger in him which he channelizes towards music.”
And going by the looks of it, he seems to have nailed it too. So, who had been his own favourite rockstar? In a surprising revelation, Gunjan candidly admits that he did not listen to rock music during his early years. “I grew up in Chandigarh, so I didn’t grow up much on rock music as such. I knew a lot of bands, but I’m not into hard-core rock music as such. So this world and playing a rockstar was very new to me.”
New it may be, but looks like the actor has not left any note untouched to hit the right chords. So how did he prepare for that rockstar swag? “Well, I didn’t see any rockstar-based films, but I did watch a lot of interviews of legendary rockstars and their bands like Metallica, ACDC, Guns’N Roses, to understand their ideas and thoughts, as well as their approach towards their music,” he says.
However, Gunjan shares that as much as he enjoyed the process of transforming himself to fit the character, it was emotionally exhausting too. “So, here I was learning the guitar for three months, being surrounded with music and transforming to a happy space, but at the same time I had to work hard to get into the skin of a character, who is broken and lonely from inside. It was emotionally exhausting,” says Gunjan.
“But I must say that it’s this process of transforming into someone else that excites me most about acting,” adds the award-winning anchor, who also hosted Chalk & Cheese, which is India’s first-ever celebrity game-show created in lockdown.