Recalling his early days of struggle in the Hindi film industry, Bollywood actor Sidharth Malhotra, talking at the session 'Masala or Off-Beat: Scripting a New Story', on Day 2 at Rising Bharat Summit 2024, the fourth edition of the CNN-News18 marquee leadership conclave held over two days at Taj Palace in New Delhi, said how he wanted to land a gig as an assistant director and not an actor in the beginning.
Sidharth Malhotra, who grew up in south Delhi and whose grandfather was in the Indian Army, says he's personally attached to the roles of Indian soldiers he gets offered, to project stories of real-life heroes, such as in Sher Shah and Mission Majnu.
Malhotra, who has completed 12 years in the Hindi film industry, recalls how at age 21 he modelled with an ad agency and how he came to Mumbai on being called by filmmaker Anubhav Sinha and trained for a year with him. After which, confused about what his next step would be, he wanted to understand how the movie business works, and so he went to a film set to get an AD (assistant director) job, and interned for three months with a team of assistant directors. "We were eight ADs, Varun Dhawan was also an AD for Dharma Productions' My Name is Khan. I was also in pre-production and post-production, for me it was the most valuable lesson, it felt like the best film school for a Delhi boy like me," said Malhotra.
Perhaps as an AD, Karan Johar saw how the camera and lights looked on Malhotra and Dhawan when the two were testing "Kajol ma'am or Shah Rukh sir's lighting". "If we didn't sweat it out as ADs on that film for almost two years, we wouldn't have got Student of the Year film," added Malhotra.
"Varun's awareness was definitely more. David sir was an editor in his younger days, so Varun had that knowledge. For me, that film was the first learning ground. It [the My Name is Khan set] was a DisneyLand for me," he said.
He'd do one-day modellings in between the AD jobs to pay for his rent. "I'd get Rs 35,000-40,000 per day modelling. Three boys stayed in one Juhu flat and I paid a monthly rent of Rs 11,000, I lived in half a bedroom," he added.
When asked how much he makes today, Malhotra smirks and said, "Ab mere time ki qeemat badh gayi (now my time has become valuable)."
As for the kind of roles actors are doing nowadays, how graphics and VFX have replaced stunt men of earlier days of cinema, he said actors have to undergo drills and training to play action roles. "Today, everybody wants something authentic, real. For Brothers, with Akshay Kumar, and recently for Yodha, we got international trainers from the US, South Africa and we trained as real-life athletes," he said.
The attempt is to showcase India's brave stories, he added, "Our soldiers are on a par with any military in the world, this we saw during the training for film like Sher Shah, That younger, furtila (energetic), sharp and beautiful Bharat, we try to show that (in our movies), too."
Malhotra culminated his session by saying that to become a Sidharth Malhotra, one needs to inculcate a Yodha attitude. Success is not got from the word go. And even if one does taste success early on, key is to not let that get to you. It's important to stay resilient and stay the course.
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