Sidharth Malhotra had what most people would call a dream debut. He was launched under Karan Johar‘s Dharma Productions in a film directed by the man himself – Student Of The Year – and it went on to do incredibly well despite having three completely new faces as the cast. It’s not every day that someone is launched with such pomp by one of Bollywood’s biggest producers, is it? Post that, he has done multiple films to prove his mettle as an actor, and has successfully made a place for himself in Bollywood.
But we don’t know too much about is his time before he got his big break. He was an assistant director on My Name Is Khan, but did you know his first movie as an AD was actually Dostana? Yup, we were surprised too! In an interview with DNA, Sid opened up on the days he’d attend multiple auditions with the hopes of getting a call back. Here are excerpts.
On his first audition
My first audition was for an ad film, it was rubbish, and I got rejected. I didn’t go through an agency, so they didn’t pay attention to me. Then, I bagged a Ponds advertisement, where the girl was Sonal Chauhan and we shot it in Bangkok. That was a big one. When you bag one, you gain confidence. But you again go back and get rejected for your second, third and fourth and lose all that confidence. It’s very unpredictable and not for everyone. Only maybe for people who are frustrated and have to make ends meet, they know they have to survive such auditions.
The worst part about these auditions
At auditions, they make you feel terribly small and unimportant. It makes you feel that aapke jaise sau log aur hai. That’s why I digressed and became an assistant director. It was a very negative environment. It didn’t help me grow and kept me in the same loop.
And look how far he’s come today!