Ronit Roy says he lived out of his car as he didn’t have money for rent: ‘Would use public washrooms to freshen up and go to shoots’

Ronit Roy, who later had a breakthrough with Kasautii Zindagii Kay as Rishabh Bajaj, said he would live in his car with all his clothes packed in a huge suitcase.

By: Entertainment Desk

Mumbai | December 10, 2023 02:40 PM IST

3 min read

Ronit Roy talks about the struggling phase of his career (Photo: Ronit Roy)

The origin story of Ronit Roy’s 2.0 phase can be traced back to his car, which the actor says was turned into his living space as he had no money to rent a house in the early stages of his career in the film industry. Ronit Roy, who had a breakthrough with the popular TV show Kasautii Zindagii Kay as Rishabh Bajaj, said he would live in his car with all his clothes packed in a huge suitcase. Asking to stay at a friend’s place was never an option as Ronit said it was “shameful” and he had a lot of self-respect.

This weirdly happened after Ronit had a successful debut with Jaan Tere Naam, but the stardom went away after a series of missteps, like excessive drinking.

“Nobody helped me, asked me, ‘Is there food in your house? Do you even have a house?’ I didn’t even have a house for the longest time, I was living in a car! I had one big suitcase, it used to be in the boot of my car and all my clothes were in it. Because I had to leave the place where I was earlier living as I didn’t have money to pay rent. I could not go back to someone’s house and say please let me stay. It is shameful. On and off would use the hotels in Juhu, all the public lavatories to freshen up and go to shoots,” he said in an interview with Lehren Retro.

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The 58-year-old actor said back then sets didn’t have vanity vans and the locations he was shooting in were places like a school. “There I would ask for a bucket to bathe, make my hair. It was tough.

“That’s why I have a very good laugh when the media time would ask, ‘This transition from film to TV, it must have been very difficult to come down to TV?’ I was completely unemployed, I had nothing! TV was actually a blessing and a boon to me,” he added.

Post Kasautii Zindagii Kay, Ronit Roy went on to star in Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi as Mihir Virani and later had a successful comeback to the big screen with Vikramaditya Motwane’s 2010 drama Udaan.

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