Sushant Singh Rajput discusses his journey

Sushant Singh Rajput, 27, was clear he wanted to be a star even though he ranked seventh in the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE). Seven years after dropping out of Delhi College of Engineering, he has bagged leading roles in Abhishek Kapoor's 'Kai Po Che', Raju Hirani's 'P.K' and Maneesh Sharma's next. He opens up to TOI about his first dancing partner Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, his mentor Shiamak Davar and his girlfriend Ankita Lokhande. Excerpts:

Let's talk about your childhood.
I was born in Patna where my father worked for the government as an engineer. I was most attached to my mom, who I lost during my 12th standard. She called me the night before she died and started crying and asked me to take care of myself. That night she had a brain hemorrhage and died. I was never close to my dad, as my mother was such a cushion. She used to always be worried about me, but never saw my success. She had a son who had died at the age of four after which she had four daughters and then me. So, I was totally pampered and spoilt. There was a vacuum in my life after her as she was the only one with whom I would discuss everything. After school, I joined Delhi College of Engineering, ranked seventh in the AIEEE and was the national Olympiad winner in Physics. I cleared 11 national engineering exams, including the Indian School of Mines at Dhanbad, but wanted to stay in Delhi for Barry John's theatre and Shiamak Davar's dance classes.

How was your experience working with Shiamak Dawar?
Whatever I am doing right now is because of him. I had initially joined Shiamak's beginner's course and straightaway selected as a dancer in his troupe. In 2005, I first came to Mumbai to Yash Raj Studios to dance for Filmfare awards and then went to Australia for the Commonwealth Games in 2006. Shiamak told me that I was not his best dancer but I was given a place in his first row of dancers. The first star I danced with was Aishwarya Rai at Filmfare awards. Dancing allowed me to travel to Australia as well as make money. Even though I had joined DCE, I spent most of my time with Shiamak and Barry.

Initially I went to him as I loved dancing and wanted to be with girls, as we did not have girls in my engineering batch. But when I started performing, I realised that this is what I wanted to do. I used to smoke in the room and he would get miffed as no one else smoked in his group. He had told me 'you are not the finest but you have something so you should join theatre.' After three years of studying engineering I realised I was getting claustrophobic in college and wanted to be on stage. I thought if nothing else would happen I would open a stall at Filmcity and make my own short films. So I came to Mumbai. I joined Nadira Babbar's theatre group and was a part of it for the first two and a half years after which Balaji's casting team made me audition for Pavitra Rishta. Ekta saw my look test and told me 'I will make you a star'.

Three of India's leading directors — Raju Hirani, Maneesh Sharma and Abhishek Kapoor have signed you for their films? How did that happen?
I enjoyed dancing more than acting as I started as a dancer. When the lights would come on, I would forget that I was a background dancer on stage and used to feel it was only me on stage. I was always star struck. The first time I danced with Ash, I was just analysing and seeing her beauty and I was supposed to lift her. I lifted her and she said 'Please don't drop me, Sushant.' I couldn't believe that she was talking to me. I remember coming to YRF waiting in a queue and filling up a form to enter and was in total awe of the place. Shiamak said at that time 'Don't get excited, you will feature in their films one day'. I danced in a Bunty Aur Babli song standing behind Abhishek Bachchan. Jaideep Sahni had written that film and now he has written the script for the film I am featuring in.

I left Pavitra Rishta after doing it for two years as the story was going all over the place. I then did Jhalak Dikkhla Ja and got 10 perfect scores in 11 weeks. Madhuri once told me off camera 'you have to teach me how to dance. I want to dance with you'. I used to get embarrassed when she said this. After my performance she would always say 'I have nothing to say and just want to come and hug Sushant as he is so good. I was sitting in a coffee shop when I met Mukesh Chabra, the casting director for Kai Po Che. I auditioned for it and got selected. I was overweight and was to play a 23 year old cricketer and lost 14 kgs in the next four weeks. I thought I would need to do at least five - six big films before I could work with Raju Hirani. But he called me once and asked me to audition for P.K. He saw my audition and told me to have tea for one hour till he showed it to Vidhu Vinod Chopra. I was committed to doing two films with UTV before I could do another film. Raju Hirani called Sid Roy Kapoor and said 'I want your boy for my film'. In less than 10 seconds Sid Roy Kapoor said yes and I was on.

You have already shot with directors Abhishek Kapoor and Maneesh Sharma. What were they like?
Maneesh is upfront, tells you on your face and is a good actor himself. Apart from his filmmaking skills he will never manipulate his words. Abhishek is passionate and cannot sleep when he is making the film. He says only two things 'maaza aa raha hai' or 'maaza nahi aa raha hai'. They are both different but wonderful.

When did you start seeing Ankita?
She was my co-star in Pavitra Rishta and I was attracted to her. It was organic and we started seeing each other after four months of working together. Actors spend so much time together when you do TV that you come to know each other well. It's now been 3.5 years and we are living together and I am happy in my relationship.

Do you see yourself getting married to Ankita?
Most probably this year only. She never forces me to do anything. The best thing about her is she is not a hypocrite and does not manipulate. You can see through her. I see the efforts she is taking to adapt to my life in films even though she is possessive for instance if I need to do an intimate scene in a film. I am not that expressive, but I try and let her know that I love her.