‘On poetry day, I urge everyone to pour their hearts out to each other!’: Ayushmann Khurrana

Young Bollywood star Ayushmann Khurrana is also a poet who is widely celebrated for his intimate views about life, love and existence. On World Poetry Day, Ayushmann urges ‘everyone to pour their hearts out to each other through the written word’ because he feels people need to connect deeply and more genuinely with each other.

He says, “It (poetry) is almost cathartic and we all need catharsis in our lives especially today. The world needs more genuine feelings through words. We need to find a way to stay true to ourselves. So, on poetry day, I urge everyone to pour their hearts out to each other through the written word. Let’s try and connect to each other more genuinely. I would like to encourage people to write, whenever possible, because it really makes you confront yourself and your deepest, most intimate emotions.”

Ayushmann, who is regarded the poster boy of content cinema in India, reveals what poetry means to him. He says, “Poetry to me is deeply personal, reflective, critical, soul-searching and at the same time full of hope. Robert Frost had said ‘Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words’ and it deeply connected with me.”

He adds, “I can’t write every day. Sometimes what I write, I don’t like. Loving poetry is like having a relationship with it. There will be great days, good days and bad days and those days will reflect my state of mind, my thoughts about life, the world and my existence. So, for me, poetry is like looking into the mirror to understand myself and my thoughts a lot more.”

Ayushmann, who has been voted as one of the Most Influential People in the World by TIME Magazine, has a stellar line up of films in 2022. He will be next seen in Anubhav Sinha’s Anek, Anubhuti Kashyap’s Doctor G and film-maker Aanand L. Rai’s Action Hero being directed by debutant Anirudh Iyer.