Ayushmann Khurrana gets candid about ‘toxic masculinity’

Mumbai: Ayushmann Khurrana has challenged the idea of ‘toxic masculinity’ right from the beginning of his career and is confident his upcoming film ‘Dream Girl 2’ will take the discourse to another level.

At the film’s trailer launch, he was asked to comment on how Karan Johar’s ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’ challenges gender stereotypes by showing two men - characters played by Ranveer Singh and Tota Roy Choudhury - perform Kathak on ‘Dola Re Dola’, a song from ‘Devdas’ featuring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit Nene.

Khurrana, who plays the role of a cross-dresser in ‘Dream Girl 2’, is happy to see the audience accept a film like ‘Rocky Aur Rani...’.

“From the beginning, I’ve criticised toxic masculinity. I’m glad that ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’ is doing well. They have set good grounds to address toxic masculinity because our film is going to take it to the next level. It’s good to see people accepting these kinds of films on social causes or trying to say something about breaking stereotypes. It’s not just the messaging in ‘Dream Girl 2’. It has a lot of comedy as well,” he said.

Khurrana is glad to count himself in the company of actors like Kamal Haasan, Govinda and Kishore Kumar, who have in the past transformed into women in different movies: “You take inspiration from Kamal Haasan sir in ‘Chachi 420’ or Govinda in ‘Aunty No. 1’. A lot of actors have done this, including Kishore Kumar ji. So, actors have an opportunity every decade to play characters like these. I’m glad I got it too with ‘Dream Girl 2’, which says a lot in a light-hearted, fun way.”

‘Dream Girl 2’ is a sequel to the actor’s 2019 comedy-drama, in which he featured Karam, a man whose female voice impersonation as Pooja begets the attention of others. The follow-up movie also stars Ananya Panday.

Khurrana termed the upcoming film a ‘true’ sequel to ‘Dream Girl’, the first film in the franchise: “After watching the first part, you will want to see this next part as well. When I heard the narration of the second part, I felt I should do it. It is an organic sequel to ‘Dream Girl’. We have a bouquet of actors, like Ananya Panday, who is a great value addition. There’s Rajpal Yadav, Abhishek Banerjee and others.”