WHEN ACTOR KARTIK TOOK HIS EXAMS...
He recalls that other students clicked selfies with him during his B.Tech exam
Pursuing B.Tech in Biotechnology, Kartik Aaryan would have made a career in that field had acting not happened to him. He recalls “struggling” to get good offers till he bagged Pyaar Ka Punchnama (PKP; 2011), a film that fetched him a fanbase. When he appeared for his exams later, other students clicked selfies with him.
“After PKP, when I was shooting for its sequel (PKP 2), you won’t believe but I was taking my B.Tech exams and I remember students clicking photographs with me while we were writing our exam,” laughs Kartik, who hit jackpot with his recent film, Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, which was a hit at the box office.
Kartik wanted to make a career in acting, something he discreetly kept working for, and only shared his dream with his parents much later. “As soon as my mother got to know that I was serious about acting and behind their back, I was struggling to get into acting, she was so, so supportive. By that time, I had already struggled my way to get Pyaar Ka Punchnama and I told them after that.” The 29-year-old actor recalls it wasn’t easy for him to tell his mother about his dream. “I was actually crying on the phone and on hearing me, she also started to cry. I got sad that I didn’t share this thing with my mom, as this was the biggest thing that happened in my life and I wanted to share it with my loved ones.
She even said that ‘you were struggling for all this while, why didn’t you tell us?’ Only I know that I was scared to tell my parents about my dream. I come from a small town middle class family and for them to understand that thing to go to Mumbai and make a career in the Hindi film industry is a huge deal. The chances are like 0.1% to make it big there. So, I never told them [about what I was doing], but when I did, they stood by my decision and never complained,” says Kartik.
His mother, however, had a condition — that he completes his studies. “She wanted me to have that [B.Tech] degree. You can say that aaj main padha likha sirf unhi ki wajah se hu.”
Kartik adds that once he embarked on the Bollywood journey, his mother got excited to know “what happens in the industry”, how it functions etc.