Sidharth Malhotra looks back at his time during the Dream Team World Tour...
Nayandeep Rakshit (DNA; September 17, 2016)


Amazing high!
This was my first world tour. So it was definitely more exciting than anything else. We toured six cities in about 12 days and that’s a lot of travelling. Before this, I’ve only been a part of award shows and have been to places in Africa and America. But those were live shows in name, only. This was my first show with a live audience. The thrill, the excitement was different.

When the opening act and the entry tune start off and your name flashes on the board, it’s really something. I had an aerial entry and the roar that comes with the entry is an amazing high for any performer. I would shut my eyes and wait for the roar. I enjoyed myself on stage. I was ‘decent’ in my first show, only unzipping my shirt, but by the second one, I had taken my shirt off and started dancing bare-bodied. I think I’m still feeding on that energy. I miss the haphazard energy and the people’s screaming and shouting now.

Travel, travel and more travel!
The travelling did take a toll. We were performing three days back-to-back and in those three days, we travelled from East Coast to West Coast and that was tiresome. We performed on the West Coast on one Friday and travelled to the East Coast — five hours away — the next day. Plus, there’s a time difference of three hours. So you lose out on eight hours of your life at once, just because of one flight. We did that, rehearsed and then practised our entries on stage. This time, I was on an IO Walk. Then, we would go straight for the hair, make-up and later, the performance itself.

This team’s a dream!
Having no egos always helps and togetherness is the key. Dream Team, was about the entire gang and no one felt that it was an individual success. It didn’t matter whether people came for me or Varun or Alia or Katrina or Aditya or Pari, what mattered was whoever you came for, you went back watching all of us together. We are all mature enough to know that this won’t hamper our box-office outcomes at all. It definitely helps all our branding. The younger lot is far cooler than the others. We knew each other, so the team got along very well together. Plus, we all had performances with each other. Barring me and Adi, though — we didn’t have any dance act together except the group performances.

No time to go out
We didn’t get any time to get out because we were so short of time. We would land eight hours before the performance so we would only be going to the hotel, changing, taking a shower and going to the venue. Parineeti passed out in a rehearsal hall once because she was too tired. But there were days when I was sleepy and exhausted, but just couldn’t sleep. There would be days when I would sleep only for two hours and then for a few hours in the plane with my neck hurting. But then again, I survived only because of the energy.

Cheating on our diets
We cheated on our diets big time. The first time was okay because I had just unbuttoned. The second show where I took my shirt off, I was conscious. I was not in shape, but I got carried away. So, then I started training, working out and I would hit the gym, looking after my diet. Not just me, all of us worked really hard on our fitness. The first thing we would all ask after landing at a hotel, was ‘Where is the gym?’ The guys were pumping and the girls were doing their exercises. We all wanted to look good.

Katrina’s pancake fix
We went out for pancakes, but that was after the whole tour. We stayed back in New York for half a day more where Katrina was obsessed with these pancakes. She wanted to go to Buggies in New York and was completely obsessing over it and we all went and hogged. Then we realised that it wasn’t the same Buggies that she was talking about. That was in some other location and we went to the wrong restaurant. She started complaining and we asked her to shut up and just eat what we got. It was fun.

I bullied Adi...
I bullied Adi a little bit. Basically, Adi had to get a guitar on stage for his performance. And in the first show, due to some delay, the guitar didn’t reach on time and he had to perform on stage without it. In the second show, he had kept his guitar safe in his vanity. So, I played a prank on him and I snuck in, took his guitar and kept it in my vanity. He refused to go on stage without the guitar and got really angry. I understood stress levels were going really high, so then I entered his room, playing his guitar.

Gifts and autographs galore
Fan interactions were the best part. I love meeting people and during our trip, we met some of the most amazing fans. I got showered with so many gifts. This girl named Zahara gave me a a customised chocolate case designed for me. That was really sweet. I remember this young Punjabi boy who came to me for a picture. And he was wearing a T-shirt with my picture on it. This Sardar boy came and hugged me. I signed a lot of hands this time. I told many girls that it won’t last that long, but they kept telling me that it’s okay they won’t be washing their hands for sometime. We also had some sweet merchandise made for my fans, so I distributed them. So there are a lot of memories and gifts, I brought back.

Encore!
We are already missing each other’s company a lot. While we were travelling for Baar Baar Dekho, both Katrina and I would miss the other people. The Dream Team tour was almost like a school picnic and it was always so much fun. We have already talked about coming together again for another tour like this. But it will happen only at a time when none of us are busy doing our respective films. So let’s see. We are hopefully going to UAE, Australia and London. We are already getting calls, there’s a demand for all of us. We will be very excited to come back again!