DNA (October 12, 2017)

From theatre to television to films, Sushant Singh Rajput has dabbled in a diverse array of mediums, straddling the worlds of the art and entertainment. The actor talks about being an “outsider” in Bollywood and getting bored of “fame and money”, in the October issue of Elle Man. Here are some excerpts...

FAME FACTS
He was prime time’s reigning heartthrob and the star of Pavitra Rishta. To test the early draft of fame, Rajput made splashy purchases and popped into malls just to be pursued by adoring fans. Then came the sobering realisation that the thrill of driving a luxury sports car lasts about as long as finding your iced latte perfectly chilled. “I felt cheated. I thought fame and money would change everything, but I didn’t know you get used to both pretty quickly. It started to get really boring and I thought: now what?”

MEDIUM DOESN’T MATTER
At the peak of his TV stardom, Rajput slipped out to join a film-making course at UCLA. That was interrupted by his breakout debut, Kai Po Che (2013), with a less-than-ideal three-hero setup. After playing leading man in Shuddh Desi Romance (2013), Rajput opted for a cameo in Rajkumar Hirani’s PK (2014), for a rumoured fee of Rs 20. During a three-month lull after MS Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016), Rajput decided to adapt Alberto Moravia’s novel The Two Of Us (HarperCollins, 1974), about a screenwriter’s relationship with his penis, for the stage. “I don’t discriminate between mediums. I don’t think you graduate from theatre to TV to films. I can do a nukkad natak and be just as excited. Or do a short film that never goes to a festival. I don’t care.”

CHANGING THE GAME
Rajput says that being a Bollywood outsider is no longer shadowed by anxieties — to be better networked, to fear the unforgivable box-office dud, to be permanently disarming off-camera. If anything, he reckons it’s the effort of a small pack of outsiders, paddling hard to stay afloat, that rids the industry of lazy, complacent cinema. “Us outsiders are upping our game, and now (good work) is out there for everyone to see. As a result, insiders have to up their game too,” he says.