The chiselled, bony face, a skin hugging T-shirt, revealing gym-honed muscles and tucked-in belly and a fake smile — that’s the new Sushant Singh for you. Thank God he hasn’t started faking an accent yet! “I don’t intend to reach there,” he says laughing.
Sushant, in his “thirties”, plays the role of Tabrez in Ashuu Trikha’s Baabarr that released past week.
Those who have seen him in Samay, Dum and Saher vouch for his acting abilities. With Baabarr, Sushant says audiences’ faith in him will be vindicated even more. He adds, “In Baabarr my character Tabrez is a minor don who follows the instructions of his boss Baabarr. But Tabrez is more conniving, intelligent, manipulative and quick. He is suited to be the bigger don. He knows that and works towards it. Such a shade hasn’t exactly been tried in Hindi films. It took me quite a while to absorb it. Playing a toughie convincingly has been quite a task.”
De-motivating
But such films are rare where Sushant’s role is praised — and then he vanishes. And he realises that. He says, “It has all to do with my low visibility. Despite directors patting me on the back and saying I am a good actor and audiences liking me, I hardly get roles to my liking. At times it has been very de-motivating. I often used to think, ‘What should I do? Should I go for serials or should I quit films?’ But every new morning I would ask myself again, ‘Why should I give up like that?’”
Of late, a few film friends and their media coordinators have laid open a “bouquet of shock secrets” for him. “They told me that I have to shout from the rooftops even if my dog sneezes or if I change my hair colour, fight with an actor or romance a heroine. All this can be sold to the media. I didn’t know that. If my producer promotes me through his film, I am bound by his contract to abide by his publicity methods. But if I do something beyond that, that is, between the film’s release and announcements, that will be my ‘PR’. I have learnt it the hard way. Now, I am hiring a PR firm to make me visible and remain in the news,” says a visibly annoyed Sushant.
So next time if you see Sushant in a hep outfit bringing a friend to a party, you can read between the lines. And let’s wait and watch if he gets more films than we can count on our fingers.
