In the controversial episode of a popular show of a news channel (the very one where actor Simi Garewal was accused of making racist remarks), while everyone present was fuming in post Mumbai-attack rage, veejay turned actor Luke Kenny was trying to make a point. A point which was all but lost amid declarations of hatred and frustration by the audience, most of whom were angry Mumbai residents. “I was a kid growing up in Thane during the 1984 riots. I was a college-going youth during the 1992 blasts in Mumbai, so I’ve seen my city suffer many a time. I was trying to be a reasonable voice,” says Kenny, who was in the city to perform in the Pink Floyd tribute night at the Park last week.

In a way, it’s quite apt that Kenny be the spokesperson of a large section of the population of the city of dreams. After all, Kenny, when he burst into the scene as a Channel V veejay in the early 1990s, stood for the kind of urban coolness that most Mumbai youths possessed and youngsters from rest of the country aspired for. “I always took music seriously. When my relatives from abroad were visiting, I would ask them to bring cassette tapes of the latest Billboard hits,” he says.

Today, his transformation to a Bollywood actor, is a testament to the changing times, feels Kenny. “Even a decade ago, most educated, urban Indians would disown Bollywood because it wasn’t cool enough. Today, things have changed, and not just cosmetically. Films today have groovy music, sleek look and believable characters,” he states. So, a Rob in Rock On is a living, breathing character and not just a stereotype, points out Kenny. “There was no need to justify the character’s background. We didn’t need to say that he is an Anglo-Indian guy with an identity crisis. That itself is a big deal,” he says.