Kumud Mishra is the happiest when he is acting, whether in films or in theatre, and says the length of his roles have never mattered to him.

Though he started his journey with TV in the mid 90s, Kumud’s movie career got a push with Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar where he played the affable Khatana bhai.

“I am here to act and whatever comes my way, whether a five-min role or 15-min, I have to justify it at my level. I never have any complaints regarding the length of my character. Whatever little people are knowing me for, it’s because of these smaller characters.

This year alone, the actor was seen in Bharat, De De Pyaar De, Article 15 and Kumud said he’s glad there are filmmakers seeing him in a different light.

“These are all different filmmakers who want to work with me and you do feel good that they’re interested in me. I feel fortunate. They’re seeing something in me which is why they’re casting me. The day they stop seeing that, I’ll be sitting at home.”

“After Rockstar I started to discover the other aspect as an actor. A lot of people had thought I don’t have any interest in films and I don’t want to work. But this wasn’t true. I wasn’t going to anyone for work. After that I started to enjoy the work coming my way. Better late than never.”

The romantic drama touches upon honour killing and the politics around it and is reportedly based on true incident in Mathura, where a national level sportsman had to face the repercussion of inter-caste marriage.

Before Rockstar happened, it wasn’t that the actor was struggling. Kumud said he was more than happy doing what he has always loved: theatre.

“I was happy doing theatre. After Rockstar film work started coming and it is an important milestone for me. As far as work satisfaction goes, I had that because I was doing theatre. I wasn’t struggling before, I’m not too ambitious and I was doing my acting anyway.

“My primary motivation to do a film is always the script. If the script is great you don’t pay attention to your role because you just want to be a part of the film. But even that depends. Some films you do for scripts, some for money, some for friends.