Sidharth Malhotra on being the same Delhi boy despite the stardom!

This Delhi boy made his grand debut in Bollywood with Karan Johar’s ‘Student of The Year’ along with Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan. Sidharth Malhotra is already five years old in the Bollywood industry and is successfully delivering hits after hits at the box office like ‘Kapoor & Sons’, ‘Villain’ and ‘Brother’.

Recently, the Baar Baar Dekho hottie, got chatty in an interview, spoke about his five year long journey and dating life out in the open.

You’ve now completed five years in the industry and have a career graph that will leave many actors envious. When you started out, you debuted with Alia and Varun who were both star kids. How difficult or easy was it not to be a star kid in the B-Town?

I won’t say it was easy. Nothing came easily to me in my decade of getting out of Delhi. It started from there because if I have to see, I left my house when I was 22 and today I am 32, so it’s been a long journey. I won’t call it easy. It’s a mix of a lot of focus, dedication and believing in wanting to try and wanting to experience and get into the industry. I would also say I’m lucky it worked out for me. But I would say the last five years in the industry has been very exciting. I’ve done so many new things, so many new characters that I was doubting whether I would do them or no, so many stories that I felt would come out very interesting and they have. I’ve gotten to be a part of such interesting music. I think music travels first. When I was in New Zealand they played Kala Chashma or Kar Gayi Chull and it feels exciting to have been a part of songs which will live on. I think songs have a great reach and sometimes they outlive the films as well. So, I won’t say it’s easy but I won’t say it’s difficult. I think it’s mostly been a learning curve for me because now I feel I’ve grown in these five years. Not only as an actor or a performer but also as a person. I’ve made many more personal equations, understood more of the business where I felt I had a disadvantage of not being aware. There was a lot of awkwardness and unawareness that arre yaar, yeh kaise hota hai? How do I approach particular people? I think that has gone out, so that has helped. I think it is only natural to become a part of this industry and meet more people. And I feel that it is just the beginning and I’m very excited about the future work and this year as well, to tell more stories which maybe are more relevant make more difference. True stories, for example, different genres for example. I think these last five years have been a great learning curve professionally and personally and the year ahead will be equally interesting.”

When you google Sidharth Malhotra, you’ll find…

Oh, what does it say?

It asks whether Sidharth Malhotra is single. You’ve been linked without your co-stars mainly Alia, Katrina and Jacqueline. How difficult is dating as an actor when you are under the constant pressure of being spotted everywhere and under the public eye all the time?

More than being an actor for me, personally it becomes about my background. I lived the majority of my life in Delhi being an average guy. If I would go to a restaurant or go to a gym or go to anything and I would be just passing in and out and not being clicked everywhere. So, I think for me is to first let go that boy which is very difficult. I think inside I’m still that Delhi boy, which gets surprised with all the attention that we get of who are we hanging out with and where are we hanging out. This new thing of getting “Spotted”. Anywhere we get spotted, photographers don’t know where we are and they keep giving random names. Or they have these five names – either we are at a restaurant, a gym, some rehearsal or doctor or a wedding or whatever. I won’t say it’s positive or negative, it’s more new. It’s still new for me. I’m not used to that kind of attention because I said, a majority of my life has been as an average movie-goer, restaurant-goer, and an average bloke. Stardom and being a known face has only been five years. I won’t say I don’t like it but I’ve come to terms with it and I feel that it’s something that is a part and parcel of our job.

With Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone making their Hollywood debuts, would you ever be interested in going to the West? 

I feel it’s difficult for boys, I think. We don’t have an example. And secondly, just the way, if I had to equate it, just the way we might not have a market for an American actor, English speaking actor because of language or just purely culture and looks. I think similarly for main leads, I don’t feel that Hollywood will be accepting in that way or that excited to have stories. I think it totally depends on a story. I think if there was an Indie film where they are not typecasting us as a nerdy guy or an Indian guy, would be interesting to do. So yeah, again, never say never.

Biopics are all the rage in Bollywood currently. If you had to do a biopic on a real-life personality like an actor, who would it be about?

Most of the actors and are still alive and kicking, whoever we follow.

It could be someone other than an actor too, like a sportsperson?

There are loads. There so many more personalities that we know and don’t know about. There are actually, a couple of scripts in the working before I take the name and disclose it. I think once they are confirmed, I will announce them. That is something I would really be interested in portraying a character or a story which is actually happened.

As you are the Brand Ambassador of New Zealand tourism, how would you describe NZ to Indians?

On what to expect from New Zealand, I think it’s purely an individual choice because whatever I have experienced in my two trips, they’ve been vastly different. I’ve spent 20 days adding both the trips and none of the days have been the same. Hence, I think it is individual what you want to experience be its adventure sports, food, amazing hotels, the beach, and the snow. It has such a wide variety. Adventure sports, even your family can do. For example, a skywalk which is very simple. You can go up and if your parents are daring enough to walk on the top of a building with harness and safety, they can walk as there is nothing to do. Or if you have parents that are really daring you can throw them off a plane and see if they land or survive. If people want to dive into the water, cross a bridge, so there is an immense amount of variety. I think for everyone New Zealand can be a different experience.