Divya Kaushik (BOMBAY TIMES; June 2, 2019)

This year is proving to be a rewarding one for actor Siddhant Chaturvedi, who feels that meeting his all-time favourite Hollywood star Chris Hemsworth was a dream come true. Back in India after attending an event for the fourth instalment of the Men In Black franchise, Men In Black: International, in Bali, the actor is starstruck to the point that he hasn’t stopped thinking about the meeting.

The actor, who rose to fame with his first film Gully Boy, has lent his voice to Chris’ character Agent H, in the Hindi version of the film. “It was surely one of the best experiences of my life. Getting the opportunity to lend my voice for the Hindi version of a popular Hollywood film was a big deal for me. When I got to know that I was going to meet Chris, I just couldn’t believe my luck. Not all people who have lent their voices to dubbed Hollywood films get to meet the actors playing the characters they are voicing. I have just done one film, so I never thought something like this would happen. I am probably the first actor who got to meet the actor I am dubbing for. I have been a huge fan of the franchise. I remember I used to mimic the characters from Men In Black and add my own desi touch to it. Now, I actually got to do that for real. It is really special for me,” Siddhant tells us.

Ask him about his meeting with Chris and Siddhant admits that he did go numb when he met him for the first time. “I just didn’t know how to react. I froze for a few minutes, but then just went ahead and introduced myself as Agent H from India. After that, it was a smooth ride. We chatted for around 20 minutes,” says the actor.

To Siddhant’s surprise, Chris had already seen some bits from his debut film. “He asked me about my film and if I rap in real life. He promised that he was going to watch it and that was a huge deal for me. To my surprise, he had already seen some bits of my film, but since I had to lose some weight for my next role, Chris said that he was expecting someone much more muscular,” he adds.

The actor was also glad that his favourite star approved of the work he did for the dubbed version of the film. “Chris had seen the trailer and told me that I did a great job. He also said ‘bahut hard’ and the way he said was the sexiest ‘bahut hard’ I ever heard. When I met him, I asked him if I was even worthy of dubbing for him, and wanted him to test me. He gave me some of his famous dialogues from the film and I translated them to Hindi. I don’t think he understood what I was saying, but he was enjoying it. Then I gave him some Hindi dialogues, but I had to explain their meaning so that he could translate them. I gave him — Rishte mein toh hum tumhare baap lagte hain — and he said, ‘I am your daddy’. Then it was ‘apna time aayega’ and he said, ‘my time is now’, and for ‘picture abhi baaki hai mere dost’, he said, ‘we are not done yet’. So, it was a casual, fun meeting,” says Siddhant.