On the occasion of Teacher's Day, Siddhant Chaturvedi visited Mithibai College in Mumbai, from where he graduated in 2013. Ten years ago, he wouldn’t have imagined where he is today – a Bollywood actor enjoying fame and the love of the audience. As he walked through the corridors of his alma mater to meet his favourite teacher, he kept stopping along the way to pose for selfies with the students, with many shouting in the background, “MC Sher is here…Gully Boy, Gully Boy!”

Finally, Siddhant stopped at the auditorium and introduced us to his drama teacher, Pravin Murlidhar Jadhav, who he credits for nurturing the artiste in him. “Every time I am spoken about as an actor, it makes me feel nostalgic about my college and remember the guidance and encouragement that Pravin sir gave me. My college stage gave me my first experience as an actor. I am still in touch with the members of the drama group of my batch,” shares Siddhant, who studied BCom in that college and also did the drama course there.

While the actor has been seen in films like Bunty Aur Babli 2, Gehraiyaan and Phone Bhoot, his teacher confesses that he loved Siddhant’s performance the most in his debut film, Gully Boy, in which he played MC Sher.

Professor Jadhav says, “Nothing can beat his performance in the film. I could have never imagined him rapping on screen. He was so good that we invited him as a judge for the rapping event at our college festival, Kshitij. Even though he’s extremely busy now, whenever we reach out to him, he is there for us.”

As Siddhant leaves the college premises, he gets emotional and says, “I have always stayed in touch with my teachers. In life, wherever you are and whatever you do, your guru will always be your guru, and you will always look back on the lessons taught by them.”

‘Siddhant was a very quiet boy in college’
Talking about the kind of student Siddhant was, his teacher says, “His entire gang came across as this wild bunch, but Siddhant was a very quiet boy. However, when this group came on stage and performed, they would give their best and win. They are the best team we have had till date, as they have won laurels for our college and made us proud.”

And the actor shares, "I was a shy guy in school. I was always the second bencher. I was studious. Teachers liked me as I was well-behaved. I would do my share of masti, but I was that guy who never got caught, somehow. Often, my classmates used to get caught because of me, while I easily escaped."

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When I am spoken about as an actor, it makes me nostalgic about my college and remember the guidance and encouragement that Pravin sir gave me. My college stage gave me my first experience as an actor. I am still in touch with the members of the drama group of my batch
— Siddhant

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This meeting is an emotional moment because as teachers what matters to us is the love and respect we get from our students. Our students remembering us even after so many years is our ultimate reward
— Pravin Murlidhar Jadhav, Siddhant’s teacher

On the surface, Siddhant Chaturvedi is a confident newcomer, well-aware of his potential. A writer at heart and a firm believer in eternal love, he finds the cynicism of contemporary times hard to connect with. It was thus tough for the actor to keep his thoughts aside and dive into the complex layers of love and infidelity, as observed by director Shakun Batra in Gehraiyaan. In Gully Boy, Bunty Aur Babli 2 and now Gehraiyaan, which drops on February 11 on Amazon Prime Video, the actor holds his own onscreen, no matter who he shares screen space with. In a chat with BT, Siddhant talks about romancing Deepika Padukone, his career choices and more. Excerpts:

In a recent interview, Shakun Batra said that love has been oversimplified in Hindi films. You’ve been extremely filmy right from your college days. Do you agree with him?
Be it love, choices or consequences, you are conditioned to think a certain way based on the films you watch. I am a diehard romantic who adores Shah Rukh Khan. I am a huge rom-com fan. Our idea of love is shaped by the films we like. For me, it was waiting for that one person your whole life philosophy. Love for me is forever. I always wanted to do a quintessential rom-com, but times have changed. Such love stories aren’t made that often these days. I was on the lookout for an out-and-out love story, and no scripts were convincing enough. I later realised that the stories I expected were nostalgic, but not reflective of the current times. When Shakun offered me this film that gets under the surface of love, I thought to myself, this is a film that begins after Raj and Simran ride off into the sunset. What happens after they get onto that train in the end? Do they feel stuck after the initial heady phase of romance? Do you not feel loved anymore? Gehraiyaan touches upon that layer. It starts off where most romcoms end. It shook me. I had to unlearn everything personally and also as an actor. I had to stop judging because you realise, we all are messed up in our own ways. He made me look within. Having said that, I will never stop believing in the made-for-each-other notion of love.

In my head, I was like, ‘Wow’ she’s Deepika! How am I going to romance her! She has worked with the likes of Shah Rukh Khan, Ranveer Singh, Ranbir Kapoor. Look at my competition.’ It is a romantic film and I didn’t want people to say, ‘Nahi kar paya.’ When I was heading to Goa, you had asked me about the intimacy workshop. I was panicking at the time because I didn’t know, and you were the first person to tell me about it. I didn’t have an idea at all. Of course, Shakun narrated the story to me and since I was eager to work with him, I said I am on. We knew there was intimacy, but we didn’t know to what extent. The screenplay didn’t particularly mention that because it wasn’t erotic poetry or something. The workshops and readings happened later. Then I got to know that to make ourselves comfortable, we had an intimacy director, Dar Gai, on set. Pehli baar jab maine suna toh thoda darr gaya ke itna kya hai picture mein jo intimacy director ki zaroorat pad gayi (smiles)! But I realised that’s how Shakun likes to work. His portrayal of intimacy isn’t just physical, but emotional and nuanced. The camera doesn’t tell you that look, two people are kissing. It flows organically.

It was a team-building exercise, something I even did in Mithibai College when we did theatre. In Goa, all of us did yoga at 7 in the morning, followed by breakfast at 10 am. At noon, we had a body coach who trained us to loosen up, and then we had Dar, who made us understand comfort and consent. These experts should be on every set. There are so many things that I didn’t know about myself. I am extremely shy, but this one month in Goa with all of us staying together and eating together, broke my inhibitions.

I didn’t sit with them. I was sitting in one corner and they were in the other. After watching the film, I returned home in my car. I didn’t even travel back with them. I rushed to my room and went to bed. Dad knocked and came in. He wanted to talk about the film because he loved it, but I just wanted this day to pass (laughs!), so we did speak about it later on the phone. That’s when he said, ‘Yeh film samaaj ka darpan hai. Ismay kuch sahi galat nahi hai.’ (It holds a mirror to the society). Koi message nahi de rahe hai hum. The world has changed and these kinds of stories exist.

I am working with those people who I have looked up to my whole life. I am still in my learning phase, but I want to be approachable and accessible even in the future. Banna toh mujhe hero hi tha pehle se, but I want to avoid the negative parts that come with it. I love it when people love my work and they should be able to tell me that. Actor ban gaye toh, sir ke paas mat jao, unka mood nahi hai... that kind of stuff I don’t like.

As told to Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 2, 2019)

When I was just a kid, dad would play a cassette before going in for shower. The first song was “O O Jaane Jaana” from Salman Khan’s Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, followed by the Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin chartbuster “Kya Hua Tera Vaada”. He would often perform on the songs and I would try a few moves of my own too.

The shower dances led to birthday parties and weddings. I was, otherwise, a shy kid but when I was grooving I broke free of my inhibitions. My parents observed this but never pushed me into pursuing dancing professionally. We come from a middle-class family and our dreams were rooted in reality.

Dad is a Chartered accountant and the family thought that was a safe career choice for me. I appeared for CPT (the CA entrance exam) but on the side, I was doing theatre when in college. I can’t explain but some kind of energy was always pulling me towards acting. So, I was acting in plays and even co-writing a few while studying for the exams. I used to attend CA classes from 7 am to noon, and from 2 pm to 5 pm I would be at rehearsals, returning home to revise my syllabus and my dialogue before going to bed. Since I was in the cultural department, attendance was never an issue, and anyway Bachelor of Commerce is an easy stream for someone doing CA.

I had to quit theatre because IPCC (CA, second level) required me to study 14 hours a day. I wanted to finish the course as soon as possible and start acting again so I focussed single-mindedly on academics. I cleared both groups in the first attempt, scoring 426 marks, just 20-30 marks short of getting a rank.

After IPCC, I had to do articleship for two-and-a-half years. I got into a firm but after a couple of months, I felt like taking a break and getting back to the stage. I entered and won the fresh face competition but then it was time to start prepping for my CA final exams. When you are featured in the front page of a newspaper and winning laurels in acting for your college, Mithibai, at inter-collegiate festivals like Umang and Malhar to name a few, it’s difficult to switch gears. Still, I enrolled myself for CA classes even though my heart was not in it. But after attending classes for three days, I decided I had had enough. I didn’t want to continue with CA.

I’d become like Ranbir Kapoor’s character in Tamasha so dad let me go for auditions with my theatre friends. I went for a lot of them and every audition was a learning experience. Initially I didn’t even know how to look into the camera. But slowly, I trained myself and polished my skills. There was a time when I was this pseudo pretentious artiste who wanted to do an art film. But slowly, I realised where the audience’s interest lay and took the jump towards commercial cinema.

I had always planned on becoming a hero, but I took a different route. I was offered a three-film contract by one of the best production houses in India, but I didn’t feel they were the right films for me so I turned them down. My parents were aghast, wondering if I’d gone mad!

My struggles continued and after several rounds of audition, Inside Edge happened. Everyone agreed it was brilliant casting and the producers of the show Farhan (Akhtar) sir and Ritesh (Sidhwani) sir specifically asked me not to undersell myself, promising me something big soon. At the success party, I spotted Zoya (Akhtar) and since I had nothing to lose, I asked the DJ to play “Gallan Goodiyaan” from her film Dil Dhadakne Do. I then walked up to her and requested her to come with me on the dance floor. Everyone, and that includes Zoya herself, was shocked by my audacity, but honestly, I had no other way to catch her attention. She was impressed by my confidence and called me to audition for Gully Boy.

I didn’t know how to rap but had a sense of poetry and rhythm. So, I wrote my own rap song detailing my struggle and crooned it during the audition. The next day, Ritesh sir called me to say, “You are on board.”

Soon after, I started workshops with Zoya. She groomed me and I started writing my own songs, becoming a rapper in the process. And that’s how bathroom dancer Siddhant Chaturvedi who had once set out to become a Chartered accountant like his dad, went on to become MC Sher, sharing the journey with Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt. Sometimes even dreams that are mere fantasies come true.