He's currently the talk of the town with his menacing performance as Major Rodricks in 7 Khoon Maaf. Bollywood's blue-eyed boy Neil Nitin Mukesh has confessed that he gets attracted to playing characters with negative shades. Busy with his next project, Abbas Mustan's Players (for which he'll be training for an extreme sport soon), Neil takes out some time for a chat with CS:

Shady boyu00a0
You got it right, I do get attracted to the anti-hero. I get my kick from kicking the butt (laughs). Also, I think it's the fact that girls always like bad boys a shade better than they like Mr Right. So, it's not surprising that whenever a role with a few grey shades comes my way, I'm keen to at least explore its potential. In fact, I was completely taken in by Amitabh Bachchan in Agneepath, Saif in Omkara, and Shah Rukh Khan in Darr. All of them have played negative characters so convincingly well.



Mystery break
I prefer reading mystery novels to any other fictional books. Give me a Sherlock Holmes novel to read any day. His books are so dark, yet so intelligent. I love the sassy attitude that's stylised with trench coats and bowler hats. All his novels are so well writtenu00a0- the entire scene plays out in your head as you read them.

Mixed bag
I'm not saying that I want to play characters with negative shades only. Variety is the spice of life, and as an actor, different roles keep me on my toes. You come across all sorts of characters in life and so every character in a film will find resonance with someone or the other. There could be a sinister and possessive Major Rodricks, rebellious Johnny or even a confused yet loyal Omar inside a person and my portrayal could help him or her connect with it.