While basking in the glory of his last screen outing, Neeraj Pandey's MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, and prepping up for Homi Adajania's Takadum which rolls in the first week of November in Mumbai, Sushant Singh Rajput turned up at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) last Friday to speak about his journey from an aspiring engineer to a successful Hindi film actor. The 30-year-old dropped out of the Delhi College of Engineering (now the Delhi Technological University) after three years in 2006 to chase his showbiz dreams.

“It was ironic, I wanted to join either IIT Delhi or IIT Mumbai but couldn't score enough to get through and yet, there I was, giving a speech at one of them a few years later. It was a high,“ he beams, adding that his middle-class upbringing meant money and recognition were high up on his list of aspirations.

An impressionable Sushant was told that only engineering could ensure success and happiness, so he worked hard at studies and cleared the entrance exam for a good engineering college. “Everyone at home was extremely happy but there was a void inside me,“ he confides.

The “feeling“ dragged him to the world of theatre. The performing arts led to an epiphany ­ if it was about money and fame, he could do it as an actor too. “It wasn't an easy decision but there was no point of wasting another year doing what I didn't want to,“ the actor explains.

Soon after, he rose to overnight fame as Manav Deshmukh on one of TV czarina Ekta Kapoor's most successful soaps - Pavitra Rishta. After a while, being recognised in malls and on the road became increasingly monotonous. “That's when I realised that I was obsessing about the future and harping on the past instead of living in the present. This realisation formed the crux of my address at the IIT summit,“ says Sushant adding that once the students figure out what excites them, they will live in the moment which is the actor's idea of success with money and recognition being just the by-products.

Prod him on whether he'd want to go back to school and complete his education and Sushant jokes, “One of my DTU professors has invited me for a similar session which I have agreed to. All I expect in return is my degree.“