The actor, who loves long drives, is set to close a deal on a house three-four hours away from the city
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 8, 2017)

As he waits for the delivery of a high-end telescope that he had placed an order for recently, Sushant Singh Rajput admits that they are not usually interior designer-approved. “Mine is distractingly large,” he explains, quickly adding, “It’s one of the most-advanced telescopes in the world and I’m going to be able to see Saturn’s rings through it.” He points towards a sea-facing window in his Bandra apartment, where he plans to place his new prized possession.

However, Sushant’s telescope may not remain stationary for too long. The 30-year-old actor is in the final stages of locking a deal on a new house. “It’s two-three hours away from the city and I will go to live there along with my telescope. I love driving so the plan is to stay there and drive into the city. When something needs my immediate attention, I’ll take the chopper service,” he says matter-of-factly, adding tongue-in-cheek, “I love my ‘space’ so much that I’m doing a film about it.”

The actor recently returned from an extensive prep session at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), where he trained for Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan’s upcoming space odyssey, Chandamama Door Ke. While Akshay Kumar and Shah Rukh Khan have shot at NASA earlier for Jaan-Emann and Swades respectively, Sushant is the first Indian actor to film inside NASA’s workshops in authentic space suits.

“It’s an incomparable experience. For 20 years, I’ve lived with formulae and theories in my head. During the training sessions, I could actually feel zero gravity; I sat in a centrifuge, experienced what it’s like to tumble in space. Everything I had read about became real. I was like a kid in a candy store. At times, I forgot that I was at NASA to shoot a film,” Sushant recalls who was studying to be an engineer, adding that he was keen on doing everything over and over again, like the astronauts. “The crew had to pull me out of there because they thought I’d never leave.”

Apart from the telescope, Sushant has also become the proud owner of a 125-book stash that includes a six-volume series on theoretical physics and a dozen books on the black hole and wormhole theories. The actor spent Monday numbering and sorting them for his already overcrowded bookshelf. “It’s not for the film,” he clarifies, “I didn’t enjoy reading certain subjects for a long time but now I’m in love with cognitive science, behavioural economics, evolutionary psychology. I jump from one genre to another and have acquired a taste for these subjects over the last two years. It’s what makes viewing (Christopher Nolan’s) Interstellar so much more interesting!” Sushant signs off excitedly.