I have stopped obsessing about the future, says Raabta actor Sushant Singh Rajput
Sushant Singh Rajput talks about success, upcoming film - Raabta, co-star Kriti Sanon and if actors are soft targets.
Last year can safely be called Sushant Singh Rajput’s turning point in career. MS Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016) was a blockbuster and catapulted him into the league of bankable actors at the box office.
Ask him if the attitude of people around him has changed after his recent success, and he says, “People who are close to me, their attitudes have not changed because they completely know that I am the same. However, I have improved on things that I was already doing but was not very good at. I have stopped obsessing about the future. There are a few things that I would hold on to about my past, which I have just completely let go. So just being in that moment and immediate experience liberates you of so many clutches.”
Now, the actor will be seen in Raabta — a romantic thriller and a story on reincarnation. So far many stories based on the theme of reincarnation have been explored in Bollywood. On asking him about the factors that appealed to him about Raabta, he says he doesn’t sign films based on their genre.
“Had that been the case I would have never done MS Dhoni. Every film or every story is a different permutation and combination, and there are only so many ways you can tell a story. Having said that, every director has different ways of creating a film; it is very subjective,” says Sushant. “I don’t believe in reincarnation, it is slightly more difficult as an actor to be pro a film if your beliefs are not the same [as that of the film’s subject]. But the way the story had a flow, I got so involved that I wanted to believe in reincarnation during the hours I spent reading the story. Also, this is the 56th character I have played. But for the very first time, in one story, I would be playing two characters.”
The actor is sharing the frame with Kriti Sanon (left) for the first time. Prod him about the qualities he admires in Kriti, and he says, “I like her professionalism and passion for work. I don’t like people who are not professional, no matter how talented they are.”
Lately, there has been speculation about Sushant’s personal life. Ask him if these conjectures bother him, and he says, “Of course, it bothers me. It is easy for me to be immune to all these stories. This is nothing compared to all that I’ve seen in my life. I could have developed that Teflon coating. But I resisted from doing that deliberately because one quality that every actor should have ––which helps a lot –– is vulnerability. So, I thought if I just make myself immune to all the things that affect me, it would also make me less vulnerable, which is not what I want.”
He further adds, “Also, I’d like to think that they’re (some channels) not against me. The digital era came in suddenly and the print media was thinking of surviving. Therefore print also went into the zone –– where it’s not important what the news is, but how many stories you have. You need the stories that the whole world is talking about. They want people to invest their time and read it; so it (the news) has to thrive on sensation. So, they will make fictional stories. If you are creating them, and investing your time writing fictional stories, at least make them interesting.”
So are actors soft targets? “Yes, because people don’t expect them to be intelligent or to make sense. We only take a few actors seriously. It’s scientifically proven that you don’t like the things that you are not expecting. So, you’re expecting a guy like me, who should be mad at this point of time because of his recent success. But, he is instead making sense and, at the same time, sounding confident of his work,” states Sushant.
Recently, at a press conference, he refused to comment on the Kulbhushan Jadhav death sentence issue. He reasons, “There is this Bollywood way of answering questions. I am not a rebel. I have realised that if I don’t know a thing, I will tell you I don’t know. I will be honest because it takes a lot to lie. I am just making my statement in a confident way. It doesn’t matter if I have an opinion or not. Some people think I have an attitude problem. I have cracked the All India Engineering Entrance Examinations. So, possibly I am intelligent. I knew what the popular opinion was [regarding that subject] when that question was asked. It was easy for me to come up with a frivolous line, but I was not well informed on that topic to make a comment.”
The actor will next be seen in Raabta, Drive, and Chanda Mama Door Ke.
Follow @htshowbiz for more
Get more updates from Bollywood, Hollywood, Music and Web Series along with Latest Entertainment News at Hindustan Times.