From playing the lovable and ideal boyfriend Bagga in College Romance to taking a sharp turn into the unsettling world of Khauf, Gagan Arora has proven his remarkable range as an actor. With Khauf, he doesn’t just take on a new role — he steps into a deeply uncomfortable space, both professionally and personally.
Gagan admits, “Khauf was an extremely different adventure. I had never done anything like this before — in fact, I was scared. Scared of how people would react, scared of how I’d process the darkness of Nakul.” The decision to play a negative character for the first time wasn’t easy, but reading the script convinced him that this was a challenge he needed to take. What followed was a psychological deep dive that tested his emotional limits.
“I have never felt more uncomfortable while preparing for a character,” he says. “As an actor, we’re trained to not judge our characters and to find their motivations. But with Nakul, every motivation made me feel like shit. I used to think — what part of me thinks it’s okay to think of a girl like that? What demon in me justifies this?”
The darkness of Nakul lingered off-camera as well. “There were days I couldn’t speak to my wife after pack-up. I couldn’t even sleep next to her. It wasn’t method acting — it was just that when you start believing in a character’s warped logic, your mind pushes back. This is the thinnest line I’ve ever walked on as an actor. Nakul is a reflection of everything insidiously wrong with our society — playing him made me question not just my craft, but my own sense of right and wrong.”
With Tabbar, The Fame Game, College Romance, and now Khauf, Gagan continues to challenge himself — and leave audiences impressed at every step
