I spent an hour with Barun Sobti...And this is what I learnt about him

From being the nation’s small screen heart-throb to portraying the complexities of a junior police officer in Punjab’s hinterlands in the Netflix show Kohrra (2023)—to perfection, Barun Sobti has done it all in the last 15 years. For those of you who still haven’t seen or heard about him (erm...have you been living under a rock?!), here’s our first impression for you—Barun is lovely. One would think that as someone who doesn’t like socialising, vanity has consumed him. But there’s considerable distance between this statement and reality.

As a child, Barun never thought that he would dabble into acting...he was enjoying school and having the time of his life. On a Zoom call—he’s wearing a light green sweatshirt with headphones, and looks like the boy next door—I notice the 39-year-old has a perturbed look when asked if he was a good student. “I don’t think I was a good student...sitting down and studying was not my thing,” shares Barun, adding, “but I would end up scoring reasonably well...I was more interested in sports.” He explains how difficult—and always inquisitive—he was as a child, and recalls challenging conventional thinking.

The first acting gig that Barun got was with a TV show, Dill Mill Gayye (2007), after which he did a bunch of roles before rising to fame with the show Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon (2011). Before he started acting—to support his father financially—he worked a corporate job at 17 and left it as an operations manager at 25. “What I am today was not in my mind 10 years ago. I had a vague idea that I wanted to get into this creative space (acting),” he mentions. 

Barun is someone who’s hard to miss—he’s tall, attractive, and has noticeable features; but none of these were instrumental in getting him his first show. He wasn’t exactly ‘spotted’. “I would, if I would ever leave home!” he laughs. “Some of my friends were really nice to me, and would tell me that I’ll find work (in the industry), and I wanted to give it a shot, too,” recalls Barun. It was a risky thing for sure, but he didn’t let anyone influence him. “My thing is, if you have to give something a shot, then give all your heart, otherwise, you should not be expecting to succeed anywhere.”

He tells me how, back in the day, he secretly hoped for the OTT revolution—then picking up in the US—to hit India so that he could be a part of it. Almost as if a dream come true, Barun has till date starred in several OTT shows including Asur (2020), Kohrra (2023), and his latest release this year, Rakshak India’s Braves: Chapter 2. For the latter, the actor spent more time preparing for the role rather than shooting for the show.

To improve endurance for high altitude, low-temperature shoots—the show was filmed in Kashmir with minimal daylight—Barun trained to build lower body strength. He also visited Nasik, Maharashtra, spending time with officers and jawans at the artillery centre.

Barun’s versatility shines in the intense role, and he portrays the character truthfully. “I think actors in India lack range, and I believe I have a reasonable amount of range,” he shares confidently.

With a packed schedule ahead, the actor is looking forward to a busy calendar. “I am currently working on a light-hearted show to balance the intensity (he thinks he’s done a lot of intense roles lately), along with two other dramas.”

As we prepare to conclude the chat, Barun says he hopes that he’s eventually paid for the hard work that he puts in his work. I couldn’t help but admire how he appreciates that his greatest strength, right now, is his unflinching realness and his happy-go-lucky attitude—both making him all the more thrilling to talk to. 

This article originally appeared in the Cosmopolitan March-April 2024 print issue. 

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