Last year, when Harsh Beniwal received a phone call to tell him he was selected for a role in the film Student of the Year 2, all he could manage in response was a “Sir, I’ll call back in a bit.” After hanging up , he started sobbing. He says his mother and sister rushed in and when he shared the news with them, there were hugs all around.
The 22-year-old is excited. “I’ve grown up hearing how one can’t make it Bollywood without contacts. Yet, somehow, here I am,” says the 22-year-old YouTuber from Delhi. Student of the Year 2 is out in theatres in May and Harsh is all set to watch the film with family, relatives and friends.
Harsh plays the role of Tiger Shroff’s friend, a naughty Punjabi high-school student. “I have a lot of scenes with Tiger bhaiya, Tara Sutaria, Ananya Panday and Aditya Seal. They all made me feel a part of the team,” he says. The role of a bashful Delhi-boy in his YouTube videos caught the attention of the production unit of Student.... and they got in topuch with him, says Harsh. “While making videos for YouTube I have to pay attention from all the processes from scripting to branding, in the film for the first time I just focused on my acting,” he recalls. Now that he has taken first steps in Bollywood, he is optimistic about his future as an actor.
Harash Beniwal shoots a YouTube video
Harsh’s videos went viral on Dubsmash in 2015 which lead to 10,000 followers on Instagram overnight. Dubsmash allows users to make short videos by dubbing over dialogues from movies, songs, TV shows, and internet trends. You can find some of his Dubsmash videos on his Instagram account which has over 1.7 millon followers. “I would stay up with mom till 3 am and make them,” he says.
This passion took a toll on his academics. The guilt of wasting his parents’ money along and identifying his calling to become a content creator gave him to courage to quit formal education. “During this period the love and support from my fans gave me the belife that I can be successful,”he says.
Harsh explained to his parents that he wanted to be a content creator and they were supportive of his decision. Harsh’s first video to touch a million views on YouTube was a one-minute video ‘Fights in different region of India.’ Today, his YouTube channel has over five million subscribers and over 41 crore views. His YouTube content is mostly college-humour and day-to-day life.
Harsh is relieved that he can at last talk about his role of a Punjabi friend of the hero in Student of the Year 2. “I had to keep it a secret for almost a year,” he says.
A scene from Student Of The Year 2
Four years of video making has helped Harsh grow as an actor. But being on a Bollywood set for the first time nade him nervous he says and recounts how he yelled “cut!” after a scene. Punit Malhotra, the film director pulled him over and explained only the director says ‘cut’ on film set. “After a day or two, I was in my element. Eventually, I too was allowed to give inputs, ” he says . Harsh was impressed by the time management on the Bolloywood set. He says, “Transition from shooting one scene to another happened in a matter of seconds.”
(Student of the Year 2 releases on May 10)
