What people know about my past isn’t true: Sooraj

Sooraj Pancholi is back in action four years after Hero (2015) with his recently-released second film, Satellite Shankar where he played a soldier. Ask him about what kept him away from the silver screen for years and he says, “I wanted to discover myself. I wanted to see who I’m after what I’ve been through, and spend some time with my mother and my sister. I was offered many films but I didn’t take them up because I wasn’t prepared. And the short but long break helped me. Before that, I was really hurt a lot by what a few individuals had done. I don’t share my problems with my family and so I wanted to be on my own for some time to cope with things.”

Sooraj believes that now is the time to speak up about being involved in the controversy surrounding actor Jiah Khan’s suicide. “I can’t change what people think. Times are such that they read and register things immediately without thinking twice. What people had read about me in the past isn’t true.

The media has their own agenda and some unprofessional journalists have written what they’ve been paid for and the things that would get them traction. I had thought the case would end on its own with time in a fair way. But my trial has not even started. I want to tell people that things have been unfair,” he elaborates.

Coming from a family of actors, does he consult his parents before zeroing in on scripts? “I sometimes consult my mother (Zarina Wahab) for certain scripts. But my father (Aditya Pancholi) doesn’t get involved in it. He asks me to speak to my mother because he believes that she’s a better judge. If I’m stuck somewhere, my mother helps me deliver certain dialogues better. But they aren’t involved as much. They let me be and do what I want to do,” he shares.

On the professional front, Sooraj will soon resume shooting for Time To Dance, and has begun prepping for a biopic on the life of a boxer based in Haryana.

I sometimes consult my mother (Zarina Wahab) for certain scripts. But my father (Aditya Pancholi) doesn’t get involved in it. He asks me to speak to my mother because he believes that she’s a better judge.

SOORAJ PANCHOLI, ACTOR