I do my best to do act right ' Manish Raisinghani

I do my best to do act right - Manish Raisinghani | Just-Showbiz.com

If you mix awesomely good looking man, a good actor, a sportsman by spirit, a budding photographer and a great human being certainly the result will be Manish Raisinghani. Playing role of Siddhant in "Sasural Simar Ka" on Colors, he has his story to tell about his journey as an actor, his likes and his hobby as photographer.

Excerpts :

A mechanical engineer by degree, a sportsman spirit by black belt in Karate Kunfoo and kick boxing and successfully winning 3 times national champion ship then what make you to take acting as career?

Listening this all over again makes me feel nice. Acting happened by chance. I started my career with modeling and modeling also happened accidentally. Some good looking guys in my college form into team. They were doing modeling as they were into inter college fashion show. I used to look up to them. One day I was sitting in the library and one of them came to me and asked me to be a part of their modelling team. I said sure but I don't know what to do. They made me practice how to walk in the hostel. But the best part about that was, that was a inter college fashion show and that's where I was named Mr. Pune. I accidently won the title of Mr. Pune. Mr. Lovell Prabhu spotted me and groomed me very well and he was the one who trained me for Grasim Mr. India. There I won 3 sub titles Mr. Photogenic, Best Smile and Best Dressed Male. I was among the top 5 also. Then I did modeling in Europe for a year later I came back India.Then I got chance in Balaji. Since then there was no looking back and I am still acting.

You played so many roles in shows. Which one is so close to you and why?

I liked all my characters, but the closest to my heart would be Sameer Gheewala in Teen Bahuraaniyaan because that was a character of a common man, the script of the show was amazing, it was telecasted opposite a giant show called Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. Everybody said don't sign it but my producers, directors and I had faith in the show because the script was brilliant. I was playing a common man,a guy who would do anything for money. I got to play a lot in the show so it was very close to my heart. Another one is Siddhant which I am playing right now. Though it's a woman oriented show writers writing Siddhant's character very well that he has been able to carve his own and stand tall in front of all the other leads. The character of Siddhant has very much lesser visibility but the kind of character he is, the hardcore romantic and angry young man, it has done very well for me. I quite like this character.

You have played grey shade character as Rahul Khanna in Rang Badalti Odhni. Why you opt for such character?

I love the character Rahul Khanna because it was not grey, it was a perspective. The concept of anti-hero has always been very liked by audiences in India, specially, right from Mr. Bachchan in the 80's and I believe Mr.Shahrukh Khan made his debut with an anti-hero image from Baazigar. Mills and Boons are like coconuts,very hard from outside and soft from inside, Rahul Khanna was of similar kind. The producer of the show Swapna Waghmare Joshi is like a mother to me and Yash Patnaik is a very dear friend so I didn't ask for the script. They told me you will love the character and I did love the character.

Photography is your hobby. Choose a celebrity from Hollywood or Bollywood whom you want to capture from your camera.

My current favorite from Hollywood is Jennifer Lawrence, she might not be the prettiest looking woman according to everyone. For me her bubbliness, madness and craziness, I really adore about her. If I get an opportunity to click someone it would be her to explore the crazy side of her. From Bollywood, if I have to take an actress it would be Kajol, she is too cute and I love her. She has lovely features. Looks can be very classy but gorgeous models with dead eyes, it doesn't really appeal to me. What really appeals to me is that soulful eyes. They put a lot of life in the picture.

Your Family doesn't belong to film industry. Any problem you faced when you opted for this career?

I don't like to call it struggle as it sounds really heavy, but yes I had my share of that phase of my career but I liked it because there was exploring every day. We get to learn from our own mistakes.We go wrong in taking up assignments; we meet wrong people, right people and perfect people. I enjoyed that journey of struggle. It was difficult as I was studying at that point of time. I felt ashamed to ask pocket money from my Dad and I had to study in the train for my assignments. I was blacklisted from the college once because of the attendance issue but my mom stood up for me. Then actually my HOD granted the term to me, with lesser attendance also. I had a great support from my family.

What preparations you do to enter into the skin of your character?

I do everything what I can. I always say I don't think I am an actor still; I am still on my way on becoming an actor. I do my best to get the act right. I had done a cameo in Jab Love Hua for Sony India in the beginning of my career. I had to play Basketball for that character but I had forgotten about it.. Everyday we used to shoot till night to get a hand of it. After completion of shoot I used to practice Basketball with the help of trainer. Now currently I am doing short film for my friend, which needs lot of martial arts basically so I am learning for that. I do my best whatever I can do to set things right and not look like lot of myself. I do my best, whatever little I can achieve I have achieved.

Any Plans in Bollywood

I have my fingers crossed. And I hope you guys pray for me and I am sure it will be there very soon.

Any crazy incident with a fan or fan groups.

No, I have all nice, cool, fun and very sweet experiences and it's amazing. When I was casted in the show, there was a lot of opposition from everywhere about the casting that is Avika and me being opposite each other in the show. Because she was 14 and I was 32 and I myself didn't believe that. I didn't understand why they are casting me but I had a leap of faith and I just did it. There was a lot of negativity about it, there were lot of things written against it, there were debates about it, but fortunately we managed to pull of the story in such a cute manner, that everyone liked it and now there is a fantastic fan following. I am so proud to say that Roli-Siddhant win in polls which are conducted on Colors website.We always thought that it was very youth oriented chemistry between Roli and Siddhant but recently when I went for an event, there was a beautiful incident which happened. I was on the stage talking, and I saw one old lady, 75-80 year old was doing a gesture which Roli and Siddhant do with the pinky finger. I couldn't understand because she was little far from me and then suddenly she is holding her daughter in her hand and basically she was holding her pinky finger with her pinky finger and my eyes were moist. I was so touched, I didn't expect this. I immediately got down the stage I called up Avika and I told her.Ours is Tom and Jerry chemistry and it's loved by 5 year old kid to 87 year old lady. We have really done something really nice in our life that we got that kind of fan following.