‘Failures make you work harder’

In life, one needs to accept both success and failure, feels Sidharth Malhotra. The actor believes that the earlier one learns to handle both, the better it is. Sidharth, who is looking forward to the release of his next, Aiyaary, went through a low phase when two of his films — Baar Baar Dekho (2016) and A Gentleman (2017) — did not do well. But post that, he delivered a hit in the form of Ittefaq (2017).

On coping with the pressures of failed films, the actor says, “I feel failure handles you more than you handle failure, because there is no choice. When things don’t work the way you want them to, you need to accept it.” In fact, Malhotra feels that his failures have prompted him to introspect. “Failure actually pushes you to make choices that you wouldn’t have made otherwise. It also makes you work harder on your craft.”

Sidharth shares how Ittefaq came as relief to him. “It was a great encouragement in terms of my performance and I have realised that’s how the life of an actor is — you can’t have an amazing run always. Life will be a bunch of ups and downs; it’s better not to be upset with the failure or too happy with the success, as both are short lived. I feel pretty equipped to handle both now,” he says.

Sidharth is also very particular about how his film fares at the box office. “Eventually, business is important, and I won’t deny getting affected if a film does not make money. But as I said, now, I accept what happens. At times the unexpected also happens — for Ittefaq, we were looking to do good work. We weren’t really looking at boxoffice results, but Ittefaq still did well. So, I guess every film deserves a different expectation,” says Sidharth.

Eventually, business is important, and I won’t deny getting affected if a film does not make money. But now, I accept what happens. SIDHARTH MALHOTRA, ACTOR