Madhureeta Mukherjee (BOMBAY TIMES; September 22, 2018)

He comes from a family that’s deeply rooted in politics, and he’s married into a khandaan that is a mighty force in Bollywood. The moment Aayush Sharma tied the knot with Salman Khan’s sister Arpita, he came into the filmi fold. But he confesses that filmdom is something that he is still warming up to. Yes, he has bhai’s muscle power backing him, but the young and restless actor knows that it comes with hefty expectations and he will be pitted against nothing but the best. With his dream debut Loveyatri, directed by Abhiraj Minawala, inching closer to release, garba boy (that’s what he is lovingly called by many now) Aayush, is all fired up and ready to take the leap. In an interview with BT, he talks about his childhood days of growing up in a political family, his relationship with the ‘Khan’daan, and how he hopes that when he’s finally on the big screen, all that will matter is the performance he puts out there. Read on…

You hail from a family with a political background (son of politician Anil Sharma) and at some point, you were handling the family business, too. When were you bitten by the acting bug?
I was always a huge movie buff; I liked watching Bollywood movies over Hollywood movies. I bunked classes to watch movies. I loved watching Govinda sir’s and Shah Rukh bhai’s films. When I moved to Mumbai, the thought of being an actor was just an amateurish idea. I gave a few auditions, after which I felt that this isn’t my cup of tea. The idea came back to me because of Sohail bhai (Arpita’s brother). We would train at the same gym, where he noticed me and said that he has a film (My Punjabi Nikaah) in mind, which he wanted to direct and that I would be a good fit for it. That day, when I came home, I said to myself that this is more than I could ask for. After that conversation, nothing really happened. Then I met Arpita and we grew close, and much later, when we decided to get married, the topic came up again. Arpita had planned a meeting between Salman, Sohail, Arbaaz and me, and when Sohail saw me, he turned to Salman and told him that I was the same boy that he had met at the gym. They went into a room, discussed something and when they came out, Salman bhai laughed and said, ‘Arpita, you have ruined his career. Sohail wanted to make a film with him and now that he is getting married to you, he has to train to be an actor’.

But at that stage, Salman didn’t have any plans of launching you, right?
Bhai said he won’t launch me, but he will train me to step into the industry. He always told me, ‘I should feel that you are ready to be an actor. If you aren’t, then I won’t work towards it’. Even when I started working as an AD, he told me that if I didn’t feel connected with the world of movies, I should go back to whatever I was doing. So, for four years, I did the drill. I trained every day (dancing, acting and horse riding) and was on set to understand the workings of the film industry. It is funny that I have the pressure of being from the industry, but actually, I am not from the industry. My director Abhiraj Minawala nurtured the idea of making Loveyatri while he was an AD on Sultan (2016). I was also assisting on that film, and he discussed it with Salman bhai and me. But back then, bhai told him that I needed time and I wasn’t ready. Only when we felt that we are ready to take it on, bhai heard the script, loved it and gave us a go ahead.

You have been married for over 3.5 years to Arpita. Was it intimidating marrying into the big Khan family?
Yes, at first it was intimidating, as I was trying to understand the whole family and get familiar with them. Now, I tell my father that I am blessed to have such a strong family in Mumbai. In Arpita’s family, everyone stays close by and they celebrate everything together. When we decided to get married, it wasn’t just the approval of Salim uncle or Salman bhai that mattered. The whole family’s approval was important. They were so warm and welcoming. I am closest to my mother-in-law (Salma Khan); she’s like my own mom. If she knows that I am shooting in the city, she never forgets to ask me if she should send me khaana. Loveyatri is not just my film; everyone in the family is involved in some way or the other. The film is like a family project, it’s like a home video that we have created together.

You come from a family that is deeply rooted in politics, but with your keen interest in movies, were you the odd one out?
While growing up, we didn’t discuss Bollywood at home. Our dinner conversations were mostly about politics. We were fairly reserved when it came to watching movies. In fact, if we went for a movie, it had to be for a special occasion, like a birthday treat, where dad took us for dinner and then to a movie theatre. It was a family tradition. I never thought I would be able to tell him that I wanted to be an actor, as I knew that he would be shocked by it. Being a politician, he never interacted with actors and he didn’t know anyone from the film industry. He wondered how this idea even occurred to me. When I actually told him about it, he was silent for a few minutes and then said, ‘This industry is not for us, we are very simple people. To be an actor, you have to be tall, extremely good-looking and well built, and you are nothing like that’ (laughs!). Well, he has not watched too, many movies, and his knowledge of cinema comes mostly from the films that he’s seen in the past. He even went ahead and told me, ‘In our times, Dharam ji (Dharmendra) was an actor. You are nothing like Dharam ji, so you shouldn’t try your luck in acting’.

In a way, you grew up in the public eye. You probably didn’t have the paparazzi following you everywhere, but political families also draw a fair amount of public and media attention.
The people of Mandi are very close to us. If you go to our house there, you will see that it’s always full of people. We have very little privacy and we have literally grown up with the people of Mandi. It’s a small town, and politics is a very big thing there, so everyone follows us closely and feels involved. I have fond memories of the time my dad and grandfather would contest for elections. As kids, we would go around carrying posters and paste them on walls. We would even carry badges in our backpack and hand them out to people.

Cut to Bollywood, life in showbiz is very different. After Arpita came into your life, you probably got a whiff of what it is like being in full media glare. And now that you are making your debut as an actor, people’s interest in you will only get stronger. Are you warming up to all the attention?
Politics and movies are very different worlds. In politics, you don’t live a flamboyant life. Even if you are like that, you can’t live like that. As a kid, my dad would tell me, ‘Don’t talk too much, listen more’. In Bollywood, it is important to talk. It took me a lot of time to get used to it. Initially, when I would go to parties with Arpita, I would tell her not to leave my hand, as I felt out of place. On seeing actors at parties, I would ask myself… Should I say hello? If I do, will I come across as a fan? I had so many such thoughts running through my head. Till date, I can’t hang around at a Bollywood party for more than 45 minutes. I have a timer, I quickly do my round of hellos, and then I am out of there.

Has marriage and fatherhood brought about a change in you?
When you are a bachelor, your responsibilities are different. You can take risks and also take life slightly easy. Marriage has made me very responsible. I am extremely lucky that I have a huge support system in Arpita. Being from the industry, she understands the profession and she is fully aware of the hard work that goes into it. She never tells me to skip my training so that we can go out for dinner, instead, she pushes me to work harder. We have a kid, Ahil, so I have to work hard for all of us. It will be a proud moment for me when Ahil will go to school and be known not just as Salman Khan’s nephew, but also as Aayush Sharma’s son. I will be happy to achieve that status in my life.

Talking about all the blood and sweat that goes into becoming an actor, in an interview with BT, Salman had voiced his opinion on the same subject. He had said, ‘Actor banna halwa nahin hai, it’s a lot of hard work. Today, they have to get trained for it and understand what it takes to make a movie. The journey is long... one or two years go by as an assistant director’. In spite of having Salman Khan as your mentor, you waited for long to reach this point; did you ever have second thoughts?
There were days when I thought that I wasn’t good at it. The first day when I was on set, I called Arpita and said, ‘I don’t think that I can be an actor’. Look at the number of people who are dependent on me to do my job well. It’s not just about my career, but so many people’s careers that are riding along with mine. Arpita was supportive and so was Salman bhai. He told me that I will be compared to the best, and that I won’t get any leeway. I know it and I fully understand that. I wasn’t born into a film family, but I know that I will be considered a filmi kid, and I will have to work harder than the others. Bhai clearly explained, ‘I lucked out, that doesn’t mean you will, too. Your hard work will take you places. You have to be grateful for every day that you are on set. I can launch you and give you the first film, but I can’t act and dance for you. If that was the case, everyone who I launched would have become a superstar. It is your destiny, after all’. I am glad that I got a reality check so early on in my career.

When a superstar like Salman Khan takes you under his wing, it is a privilege, but it also comes with immense pressure, doesn’t it?
Yes, there is huge pressure, and I also know that there are a lot of people who are wondering whether I deserve to be an actor. There are conversations around it, but I don’t look at it that way, else it will break my spirit. Today, I have a platform like Loveyatri, I don’t know if I deserve a film like this, but I feel so fortunate to be a part of it. I am lucky that people are keen to see me on screen. In a year, there are many movies that release, but don’t get the kind of attention and traction they deserve. The moment I am on the big screen, I’ll be on my own. Then, it will be about how good or bad I am. People will forget who I am related to.