MADHURI WANTED TO LEARN DANCE FROM ME
Sushant
Singh Rajput, 27, was clear he wanted to be a star even though he
ranked seventh in the All India Engineering Entrance Examination
(AIEEE). Seven years after dropping out of Delhi College of Engineering,
he has bagged leading roles in Abhishek Kapoor’s Kai Po Che, Raju
Hirani’s P.K. and Maneesh Sharma’s next. He opens up to Bombay Times
about his first dancing partner Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, his mentor
Shiamak Davar and his girlfriend Ankita Lokhande. Excerpts:
Let’s talk about your childhood.
I
was born in Patna where my father worked for the government as an
engineer. I was most attached to my mom, who I lost during my 12th
standard. She called me the night before she died and started crying and
asked me to take care of myself. That night she had a brain hemorrhage
and died. I was never close to my dad, as my mother was such a cushion.
She used to always be worried about me, but never saw my success. She
had a son who had died at the age of four after which she had four
daughters and then me. So, I was totally pampered and spoilt. There was a
vacuum in my life after her as she was the only one with whom I would
discuss everything. After school, I joined Delhi College of Engineering,
ranked seventh in the AIEEE and was the national Olympiad winner in
Physics. I cleared 11 national engineering exams, including the Indian
School of Mines at Dhanbad, but wanted to stay in Delhi for Barry John’s
theatre and Shiamak Davar’s dance classes.
How was your experience working with Shiamak Davar? Whatever
I am doing right now is because of him. I had initially joined
Shiamak’s beginner’s course and was straightaway selected as a dancer in
his troupe. In 2005, I first came to Mumbai to Yash Raj Studios to
dance for Filmfare Awards and then went to Australia for the
Commonwealth Games in 2006. Shiamak told me that I was not his best
dancer, but I was given a place in his first row of dancers. The first
star I danced with was Aishwarya Rai at Filmfare Awards. Dancing allowed
me to travel to
Australia as well as make money. Even though I had
joined DCE, I spent most of my time with Shiamak and Barry. Initially, I
went to Shiamak as I loved dancing and wanted to be with girls, as we
did not have girls in my engineering batch. But when I started
performing, I realised that this is what I wanted to do. I used to smoke
in the room and he would get miffed as no one else smoked in his group.
He had told me, ‘You are not the finest, but you have something so you
should join theatre.’ After
three years of studying engineering, I realised I was getting
claustrophobic in college and wanted to be on stage. I thought if
nothing else would happen, I would open a stall at Filmcity and make my
own short films. So, I came to Mumbai. I joined Nadira Babbar’s theatre
group and was a part of it for the first two-and-a-half years after
which Balaji’s casting team made me audition for Pavitra Rishta. Ekta
saw my look test and told me, ‘I will make you a star’.
Three of
India’s leading directors — Raju Hirani, Maneesh Sharma and Abhishek
Kapoor — have signed you for their films? How did that happen?
I
enjoyed dancing more than acting as I started as a dancer. When the
lights would come on, I would forget that I was a background dancer on
stage and used to feel it was only me on stage. I was always
star-struck. The first time I danced with Ash, I was just analysing and
seeing her beauty and I was supposed to lift her. I lifted her and she
said, ‘Please don’t drop me, Sushant’. I couldn’t believe that she was
talking to me. I remember coming
to
YRF waiting in a queue and filling up a form to enter and was in total
awe of the place. Shiamak said at that time, ‘Don’t get excited, you
will feature in their films one day’. I danced in a Bunty Aur Babli song
standing behind Abhishek Bachchan. Jaideep Sahni had written that film
and now, he has written the script for the film I am featuring in.
I
left Pavitra Rishta after doing it for two years, as the story was
going all over the place. I then did Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa and got 10
perfect scores in 11 weeks. Madhuri once told me off camera, ‘You have
to teach me how to dance. I want to dance with you’. I used to get
embarrassed when she said this. After my performance she would always
say, ‘I have nothing to say and just
want to come and hug Sushant as he is so good’. I was sitting in a
coffee shop when I met Mukesh Chabra, the casting director for Kai Po
Che. I auditioned for it and got selected. I was overweight and was to
play a 23-yearold cricketer and lost 14 kilos in the next four weeks. I
thought I would need to do at least five-to-six big films before I could
work with Raju Hirani. But he called me once and asked me to audition
for P.K. He saw my audition and told me to have tea for one hour till he
showed it to Vidhu Vinod Chopra. I was committed to doing two films
with UTV before I could do another film. Raju Hirani called Siddharth
Roy Kapoor and said, ‘I want your boy for my film’. In less than 10
seconds, Siddharth said yes and I was on.
You have already shot with directors Abhishek Kapoor and Maneesh Sharma. What were they like? Maneesh
is upfront and tells you on your face and is a good actor himself.
Apart from his filmmaking skills, he will never manipulate his words.
Abhishek is passionate and cannot sleep when he is making the film. He
says only two things, ‘Maza aa raha hain’ or ‘maza nahi aa raha hain’.
They are both different, but wonderful.
When did you start seeing Ankita? She
was my co-star in Pavitra Rishta and I was attracted to her. It was
organic and we started seeing each other after four months of working
together. Actors spend so much time together when you do TV that you
come to know each other well. It’s now been three-and-a-half years and
we are living together and I am happy in my relationship.
Do you see yourself getting married to Ankita? Most
probably, this year only. She never forces me to do anything. The best
thing about her is, she is not a hypocrite and does not manipulate. You
can see through her. I see the effort she is taking to adapt to my life
in films even though she is possessive, for instance, if I need to do an
intimate scene in a film. I am not that expressive, but I try and let
her know that I love her.
Sushant Singh Rajput. Watch him talk about his film Kai Po Che
