Siddharth Narayan

He starred in Prabhu Deva's debut directorial venture, has a penchant for languages and was not too keen to star in RDB initially, in spite of knowing Aamir Khan was going to be a co-star! Meet the southern blue-eyed boy, Siddharth who has lived life on his terms from the word go!

This marks your debut attempt in Bollywood. So how did you manage to bag the role?

I was just wrapping up one of my movies down south, when the executive producer called me and asked me if I was interested in doing a Hindi movie. I said no right away. Then he said, the movie stars Aamir Khan, but I was still not sure! Because you know the thing is I was not sure of the content I would get, and secondly, I am at that stage of my career here, where I am doing what I want to. Like I am scripting my next movie right now. So I didn't want to go looking for greener pastures, because they really don't exist.

So what's the reason you and me sit across today?

(Laughs) I got a bound script of Rang De Basanti, and when I read it, I fell in love with it. I knew if I did not do the movie, I would be angry with myself. So I called Rakesh Mehra and told him that he was going to make the movie anything like the script, I wanted to be onboard. Things went ahead from there, I gave the auditions, and I was in. I was in fact, the last person to be cast for Rang De Basanti.

How like or unlike are you to the character you play yourself?

I play Karan Singhania in the movie, and Siddharth has no connect to Karan at all. But defiantly, Karan is a bit of a cynic and so am I. But Karan is a cynic with no solutions; I am a cynic with a million solutions. I am a die-hard optimist, and probably that's why I am, where I am today, I have always followed what I have enjoyed doing. Karan is more disillusioned, he is someone who has something to say, but he is not sure what it is. He is not confused, but like I said, Karan is one disillusioned guy. He is a quiet character, and so am I, I am a very private person.

Wasn't language a bit of a hindrance initially?

Since school I have always believed in this odd quirk which went like, if you love a language, the language will love you back. And my Hindi comes from my days in school, where I studied at Arya Vidaya in Chennai, and then went to Delhi, where I did my college. Also I like to speak different dialects and though I am basically a Tamilian, I learnt Telegu in two weeks for Prabhu Deva's film in which I starred, and then dubbed for it too, so language has really never been a problem with me. (Smiles)


You've gone from a MBA whiz kid to an Assistant Director, to an actor, a script writer to someone who marks an entry into Bollywood! Had you decided on all this as a part of your grand scheme of things?


(Laughs) You know, I'll tell you something very seriously, there has been no December that has not gone by, where I haven't thought what I was going to do in March, and there has been no March which hasn't gone by, which hasn't proved me wrong! I really don't believe in luck, but I know destiny exists, and that's what makes all the difference. I've often been at the right place at the right time, and though I have no control over my destiny, one thing which I know I can control is to say no. And I definitely have a gift of that. So looking back I haven't done anything that I am ashamed of, or anything that I wouldn't be able to show my children tomorrow.

So looking back, how has your experience been shooting for Rang De Basanti?

Once I signed on, there was no looking back. And though I'm not good at quoting clichs, I have been able to relate to Rang De Basanti , and then be it Sharman or Soha, I've made some great friends here, which doesn't happen very often on movie sets. I can't speak for other characters, but my character has thrown questions at me. I've woken up in the middle of the night wondering what am I doing, but always found an umbical cord leading to Rakesh Mehra giving me the old reinforcement talk, and making me believe, that yes I can. And from when Rakesh and I spoke about Karan's character in February, it has grown tremendously since then, and I've had a complete blast shooting for the movie!