Rishabh Suri (HINDUSTAN TIMES; February 17, 2020)

His journey so far is the stuff dreams are made of. Siddhant Chaturvedi is still coming to terms with the fact that after Gully Boy, his life has changed completely, and that he’s working with the biggest of stars now. His lineup includes a romance drama with Deepika Padukone, the sequel to Bunty Aur Babli, and a film with Katrina Kaif.

“I’m living my dream,” says the 26-year old, “I could write a book on this. It’s unbelievable, what has happened overnight. Actually, I won’t say that it ‘happened’ overnight, but I did dream of this. I used to say to myself ‘apna time aayega’. And that literally happened. I feel that now, when I walk on to sets of Bunty Aur Babli 2, and work with Saif (Ali Khan) sir and Rani (Mukerji) ma’am, or when I’m doing the readings for Shakun Batra’s film with Deepika. I always wanted to romance her!”

Is Siddhant still coming to terms with how much his life has changed? He says, “When I was trying to get into films, in my head, I was clear about wanting to be a leading hero’. I was living the dream in my head, so I was mentally prepared.”

Playing a friend’s role in your debut film is a risk that an aspiring debutant takes. And even Siddhant wasn’t too sure about playing the role of MC Sher in Gully Boy, which completed a year of it’s release on February 14. He had almost said ‘no’!

“I used to keep auditioning for films, and then I was called for this role, and told the lead pair is Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt. I said I didn’t want to be friend-zoned, I will give it a pass. But a couple of months later, Zoya (Akhtar, director) saw me dancing at a party, and asked me to audition. I said ‘If not this film, I’ll at least impress her for some other project’! But she called me the very next morning — just 20 days before the shoot — and said ‘I am sending you the script’. I was like,‘Wow, nobody sends the script until the actor has signed a contract’, but I had no choice, being an outsider. And then, I could see the meat right there, and I was on,” recalls Siddhant, who received a lot of acclaim for his portrayal of a rapper.

Drowned in a lot of work now, the actor is ‘overwhelmed’, as he confesses, “An action film is going to be announced soon. I’m quite pumped. And I have three back-to-back films to be shot, but I’m not complaining. After I shot for Gully Boy, for close to a year, I didn’t do anything. I was at home, travelling, and people had said then, ‘Do whatever you can to lead a normal life, but your life is going to change’.”