How was your experience shooting for ‘Ajnabee’?
I had a great time, it just took a little more time to get made but the experience was a pleasurable one. I worked with Abbas-Mastan once again (after ‘Khiladi’), I worked with Kareena, a girl I’ve actually seen grow, Bobby and me became great friends, and after co-starring with Bipasha, it made me realise that models can act too."

You did fabulously well in ‘Ek Rishta’ and were a pleasant surprise package in ‘Ajnabee.’ It seems that marriage has directed your performance towards professional betterment. Do you agree?
"Marriage has got me a lot of luck, and when luck is in your favour you automatically develop confidence. With being that much more confident you automatically change for the better. You do everything with a positive attitude and look at life, be it the personal or professional from a more optimistic point of view altogether. So Yes! I give a lot of credit to my marital status. In this industry, your degree of survival is 70% luck and 30% hard work. I will therefore say that I owe 70% of my success to my wife."

It is heard that Twinkle has asked you not to do any dangerous stunts on your own?

"She obviously cares for me and so she says it. But action stunts are my life. I have definitely cut down on my action films. I am doing just one to two of them per year, but there’s no way I can give it up completely. For all the thrill that action gives me, it’s my high of life."

You are one actor who seems to be doing a lot of films that require dual heroes. Is this a conscious effort to spread the risk element thin?
"It really does not matter. I have a few solo films in my kitty. There is ‘Talaash,’ there is ‘Mere Jeevan Saathi.’ So it isn’t really an issue. If I feel my role is good, I do it."

Sunil and you have worked in many films together. The chemistry between the two of you definitely seems to work on screen. Comment. "It works in some films, it doesn’t work in some, though I’m happy that most of the times it’s the former. It worked in ‘Waqt Humara Hai,’ ‘Mohra,’ ‘Dhadkan’ and it didn’t work in ‘Hum Hai Bemisaal.’ Let’s hope it works in ‘Aawara Pagal Deewana,’ another film we are doing together."

How many more films in the pipeline?
"There is ‘Aawara Pagal Deewana,’ Dharmesh Darshan’s ‘Haan Main Bhi Pyar Kiya’ co-starring Abhishek and Karisma Kapoor, ‘Aankhen’ with Paresh Rawal, Arjun Rampal and Sushmita Sen and ‘Talaash’ which is an action film that co-stars Kareena."

You put in a lot of faith in first time directors.
"There was a time when someone put in a lot of faith in a first time actor. I like giving people chances. When you know that someone’s kitchen is going to run depending on the success of your films, the insecurities are too high. But at the end of it all, if your investment of time and effort pays off there’s no better feeling."

Recently we’ve seen you play characters with shades of gray, be it ‘Ajnabee’ or ‘Khiladi 420.’ Are you trying to change your image?
The move wasn’t intentional but purely co-incidental. The screenplays demanded me to do such roles."