Actor Sidharth Malhotra made his big Bollywood debut with Karan Johar’s Student of The Year in 2012. However, the journey that led him to the project had several detours and hardships as well. The actor, who is married to Kiara Advani, shared that his first pay cheque was from an ad campaign, which fetched him around Rs 2500 to Rs Rs 3000.
In an onstage conversation at News18’s Rising Bharat Summit, Sidharth shared that he was encouraged to take up acting by an agency. He shared, “That journey has its own hardships. It wasn’t this easy. I was 20-21 years old when I went for an audition on the recommendation of an agency. They had seen my face in the paper,” recalled Sidharth.
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When asked how he ended up in a newspaper, the actor said, “I used to do fashion modeling, walks, so my photograph would appear in the paper in designer clothes. I had done an advertisement for a Samsung mobile campaign. They wanted a girl and a boy. My first pay cheque was of Rs 2500 or Rs 3000. Uss waqt humare waqt ki itni hi keemat thi (That was the value for our time back then.)”
Sidharth went on to narrate how Anubhav Sinha was launching new faces through Adlabs film agency and he had started training Sidharth for a project. But as fate would have it, the film never saw the light of the day. Sidharth, who has films like Shershaan, Brother and Kapoor & Sons to his credit, shared that actors tend to do something out of the box when they are desperate for work and this led him to apply for the job of an Assistant Director in films upon realising that it could be a good learning opportunity.
“I went straight to production houses, not as an actor but Assistant Director. I made that shift. Those three months determined my path today,” he said. The actor, who hails from Delhi, said that initially there was minimum pay or no pay involved in being the junior most AD in the team. “I met teams of ADs, who were working in big films. If there are 5 ADs in a film, then the 5th one would be an intern, which means that he doesn’t get paid well or doesn’t get paid at all. I was vouching for that part,” he said.
As destiny had it, Sidharth got the job of an AD in Karan Johar’s My Name is Khan. The film, which starred Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in leading roles, gave the actor the exposure he needed. “I got a film My Name Is Khan. Out of 8 ADs, I was something in the middle, on the 5th spot,” he said.
The actor also added that during the shooting of the film, he learned several nuances of filmmaking. During the making, some members of the crew commented on how good he looked on camera. This led him to getting an opportunity in Karan’s Student of the Year.
Sidharth was recently seen in the film Yodha.
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