The Roy brothers, Ronit and Rohit, came in from the wilderness to forge a successful career in television. They have rarely shared secrets and have never celebrated their success together. But their relationship is "a hedge against tough times" RONIT ROY TAPS HIS FOOT IMPATIENTLY, TWIRLS his moustache and tells me, both exasperated and resigned to his fate, "Rohit is the star in the family, I am the struggler." The 43-year-old superstar of Indian television adds, "Look at me, I am here, ready, waiting for the star to arrive." ? Ronit's kid brother Rohit, an actor and director, is running an hour late for the photo-shoot. But that's just so him, says Ronit. "But I often do the big bro act every time he pisses me off. When we were growing up I was the big bully and he was this quiet child with his head always buried in books. So, Rohit is still a little wary of me." ? When Rohit, 40, finally arrives, he is sporting a snazzy pair of jeans, a black shirt and pointy-toed shoes. He has a voice ' the sound of which he loves ' that booms across the room and he constantly checks himself out in the mirror. Ronit, the former bully, attired in an old T-shirt, chappals and faded denims, just stares at him and smiles. The Roys are today the hottest names in Indian television and take home around Rs 1.5 lakh per episode for a show or a serial. They reject more shows than they accept, says television producer Shobana Desai, who has known them for a long time. "Often, producers have to wait endlessly for them to get back." Rohit, who is also charting a parallel course in Bollywood, directed Rice Plate, a short film, for producer-director and close buddy Sanjay Gupta's 2007 release Dus Kahaniyan with Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah in the lead and this year, you'll see him in Alibaug. He is also directing a sequel to Kaante for Gupta's White Feather Films. Ronit, meanwhile, has stuck to television except that, like his idol Aamir Khan, he does only one show at a time. (Right now he's in Bandini on Colors.) 😕 "The two have virtually come in from the wilderness," says Balaji Telefilms boss Ekta Kapoor, who gave Ronit's sagging acting career a boost by offering him the enormously successful Kasauti Zindagi Kay in 2000. "And they have made it despite all odds, without much help. I think Rohit is the lucky one, he had Ronit to fall back on." The Roy brothers, who stay in Lokhandwala in north Mumbai, grew up in the old part of Ahmedabad, which is crammed with both stunning heritage structures and garbage bins. Ronit was infamous in the narrow lanes of the old town as, well, a goonda. He got into fights regularly and was rarely seen at school. He remembers Rohit as a fat little boy with a goofy smile, missing teeth and clothes that never matched. "I thought he was too solitary. He didn't have many friends at school. I never thought that my shy kid brother would grow up to be such a social animal." Like almost everyone in the neighbourhood, the boys were raised to meet a certain 'standard' by their businessman father Brotin Bose Roy and teacher mother Dolly. "My father had dreams of us becoming academically qualified and attending college. My grades were average at the best," says Ronit. Rohit, on the other hand, looked the better prospect and was seriously considering doing an MBA from the US. "I imagined him as an IFS officer, a diplomat posted in some foreign country or maybe, an IAS officer. I imagined him sitting in a car with the trademark lal batti on top." Rohit was 20 when Ronit shifted to Mumbai in 1986, attracted by Bollywood. "I wasn't interested in acting as a craft, the way I am today," he says. "I wanted the trappings ' fame, money, fast life, fast cars and women that come with the territory," says Ronit, who did a few modeling assignments and worked with director Subhash Ghai as an assistant director and editor before finally getting his break in 1992 with Jaan Tere Naam, which turned out to be a hit. But a couple of bad decisions and consequently, big flops later, his career hit the skids. The drinking, partying and womanising had taken their toll. "I would report for work with bags under my eyes and a massive hangover. I was on extreme overdrive. I wanted to drink it all up in a single gulp. I believed that a Bollywood career meant living it up every night." Within three years, his marriage was over, his career was dead and Ronit was nowhere. He remembers that night when "I packed up all my fancy gear into my Mercedes and left home after an argument with my wife". Some nights he would sleep in his car. Sometimes he would shack up with a friend. Or he would find a hotel, drink himself senseless, pass out and report to a shoot in the morning. "I was wiping out my existence, but there was no sign of self-introspection." Slowly, as his love for the bottle and tales of unprofessional attitude spread, the roles stopped coming his way. Do you remember the time this was happening, I ask Rohit. "The memory of that phase is still stark," he says. "Ronit had made an impact rather early in his career but he squandered it all. He got caught in the vortex of success and let himself go. I was very young and I would be scared every time I looked at him. Often I thought, were the trappings and the fame worth the trauma that the family went through?" Ronit ultimately took to doing mainstream Bengali films and then, television work to survive. And in 2000, as he gradually fought his way back, he also set up Ace Security and Protection, which plays bodyguard to a host of Bollywood stars. But the downhill spiral had left a bitter aftertaste, which is why Ronit was furious when his brother decided to abandon the MBA course he was planning to pursue and try a career in showbiz. "I wanted to slap him, shake him real hard and ask him to see the dirt behind the glamour," says the actor. "I felt helpless when he decided to go against my advice. I have been protective of Rohit all along but that's when I realised I will have to let go and let destiny take over." Rohit, who joined director and ad film-maker Kunal Kapoor as an assistant in 1993, soon landed Swabhimaan, a television show directed by Mahesh Bhatt and written by Shobhaa De. Rishabh Malhotra, the character he played, was rich, bratty and arrogant, a departure from the staid, one-dimensional heroes who were the mainstay of television in those days. It ran for four years on Doordarshan and the actor went on to do several successful shows before moving to films. A regular with White Feather films and an integral part of the Gupta gang, Rohit's first few movies were flops until the tide turned with the 2007 hit Shootout at Lokhandwala. "My downs were far less than my ups and I could choose projects carefully. I had Ronit to depend on. I could afford not to do any work and knew he would take care of me, emotionally and financially," says Rohit. Aside from being tall, the physical trait the two brothers' share is a broad, slightly asymmetrical nose and brown eyes that were acquired from their mother. Both are fond of snazzy cars and bikes. Rohit recently bought himself DaimlerChrysler's Grand Cherokee, while Ronit drives a Mercedes. "I bought my first bike when I was 24, a Yamaha RD 350. Rohit took it away, sold it and pocketed the money," says Ronit. "He did the same with my first car, a Maruti 800." Today the brothers rarely meet. "We are there for each other in adversity, but we hardly celebrate our success together," says Rohit. "I am in awe of him so I have never tried to be friends with him. Both of us have walked our separate paths. We don't have the same friends or interests. For the most part, we have led different lives, which meet at some point, especially when we are working together. We did a show, Sarkar, together two years ago, but that was pulled off the air because of low TRPs." As they hang loose this morning, the camaraderie between them is quiet but very tangible. I ask Ronit what happens if one of them is in trouble. "You get a phone call and you go out there and help as much as you can. You don't ask questions."
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