The hustle of getting work, opportunity and the hustle of doing good work is very important in anybody’s life. Everybody is in a hustle line irrespective of their position, stature and circumstances. Especially in actors and artists, this hustle does not go anywhere, it remains no matter how big and famous you become. Where there is no hustle, there is no growth in life as well. By hustle, it does not mean only to get work but also to make your craft better. As Raj Kumar says this hustle is for a lifetime, otherwise there is no growth in life.
The pre-Bollywood phase of the struggle was like living with an extreme dearth of money, skipping lunch or managing with parle-G biscuits and fruity tetra packs, literally worrying about three times of food. Then his mother had supported him like a rock solid. But he was working out regularly, as he was habituated from childhood. So there was no health impact as such. Though could not afford to have trainers, no guidance he was working out. Raj Kumar said, ‘My everyday routine was going to auditions, meetings, and tests, then coming back home and working on my acting skills which was the most satisfying part of the day. Those times you don’t get to act every day, so giving a few hours to your craft and polishing it and practicing it was heavenly’.
The hard work that you do during your struggling days, without getting anything in return either monetary or fame, takes you to the height of success eventually. The struggle of life started after my 12th. There is an acting school called Sriram Performing Arts in Mandi House, Mumbai. I got admission when I was 18 years old. I got to Atmaram College because someone told me if enrolled in college I get a free bus pass. So I only got to college to do graduation to get a bus pass. Fortunately, the very year Atmaram College started its theatre branch. So I used to do theatre in college during the day, then come to mandi house in the evening and do theatre there as well. It continued for three years. Then I applied for FTI and got through. So it was God’s plan, it craved my path to the field of acting. I genuinely believe I am a God’s kid. I have many times realised in life that God protects me from any bad, difficult situations. It happens like a miracle, so some power is nurturing and protecting me.
The hustle of post-fame, is a different type of struggle because your responsibility grows towards the family, extended family. People have this perception about actors, earlier I used to feel also that the lives of actors are dreamy, larger than life etc. But it is nothing as such, the actors are as normal people as everybody else. Another question always people ask is, oh, you are so lucky to start your career with a movie like LSD. Rajkumar states, that there was no buffet of variety in front of me to pick and choose, I grabbed whatever came my way. So after getting a name, and recognition, it is very difficult to say no to projects, because now I am very conscious about selecting the kind of movies I want to be part of. It is far more difficult to say no than to say yes because you never know how the other person will react. Moreover, there is no point in getting involved in a project half-heartedly and one should convey this to the maker with utmost honesty.
The fact about actors and pure artists is that they are very authentic, sentimental, and tender at heart. A good artist can be a good human being and vice versa. Talking about his new film, Srikant a story of a blind boy, makes him feel that after putting on the costume of the character he is blind.
To adopt this he was practicing throughout the process of filming the film as a real blind person. People used to help him walk from one place to another, count the steps while coming down or going up etc. After a certain point, the people around started to say whet et her could not see anything. This film is a biopic of a visually impaired boy Srikant Bolla born into an extremely poor family who rises to become a top industrialist. During the preparation of a film, you get engrossed so deeply that even after it is over certain traits tend to remain with you, but it should not be the case, one needs to detach from every character post its making.
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