If change is fast becoming a constant in Bollywood, rewriting first impressions is what most actors hope to do. Especially when a cliché sets in. But a reinvention in the early years of one’s career is a hard gamble, one that Shahid Kapoor is willing to take on. With Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminey, he’s only too eager to shake off his chocolate-boy tag, an attempt he began with his grimacing act in 2007’s Jab We Met.

The August 14 release will have Kapoor play a local goon in a double role. “Kaminey is indeed hugely different from what I’ve done before. And I am hoping that it will make people see me differently,” he says. Kapoor entered the industry at a very young and gawky 17 where he was a part of the musical troupe in Taal. And, he misses his lost candour. “I miss the innocence of being here without knowing exactly what I was doing,” he laughs his killer dimpled laugh, adding, “Honestly, I don’t like the way I look now.”

Is he Mr Goody-Two-Shoes for real? The 27-year-old frowns: “I think there are too many people inside me. I’m discovering many sides to myself now — there are days when I am quiet and there are days when I’m talkative. But I’m usually a correct-face person.”