SIDHARTH’S FIRST LESSON IN BOLLYWOOD
Actor Sidharth Malhotra talks about his struggling days in the film industry and how that period taught him a lot of valuable life lessons
Yashika Mathur
Actor Sidharth Malhotra was a regular boy-nextdoor from Delhi before he moved to Mumbai in 2006 and began modelling. Soon after, he made his way towards Bollywood, but like many others, he went through doubts before his big debut in 2012 with Student of The Year (SOTY).
“Until I shot for SOTY, I didn’t know what was happening. Earlier, I was a part of a film which I was prepping for, but it never took off. That was my first lesson — you can’t take a confirmation for granted. It took me four years to get another film and I learnt a lot in life [during that period] — from managing my budget for rent to getting a job and moving in the right direction,” says Sidharth, who has starred in films such as Hasee Toh Phasee (2014), Ek Villain (2014), Kapoor & Sons (2016), and this year’s Aiyaary.
He reveals that for the first six months of struggling in Bollywood, he thought that things were working out for him. “But (in reality) it was not so. I was here (in Mumbai) for a year, only doing photo shoots, because it was giving me money to survive. Then when I started assisting in films, the idea of becoming an assistant director seemed like the best [option]. It made me feel like I was not wasting my time and doing something productive,” says Sidharth, who worked as an assistant director in My Name Is Khan (2010), before he bagged his debut film as an actor.
The actor agrees that people who do not hail from the film industry are looked upon as outsiders, and adds, “It’s not that I believe in these demarcations, but it is a reality for me.” While most ‘outsiders’ have to go through their share of struggle to make a mark in Bollywood, Sidharth had a tough time even before he entered the industry.
“I felt like more an outsider when I had not joined the industry. There was so much of negativity then. You would meet people who wouldn’t encourage you, would thumb you down. People tell you ‘ki nahi hoga’. [But] Once I got in, people judged me by my work,” he says.
“Starting from scratch, getting my first film, learning things about filmmaking, and getting access to the right people are some important aspects of growth for me,” says the actor, adding that Mumbai is not an easy city to survive in for anyone. “And if you are in the film industry, there is a lot of competition. It’s a mix of hard work and perseverance of coming back again and again,” he signs off.