Shah Rukh Khan helped me sort out my confusion of who should I be: Sushant Singh Rajput

Sushant Singh Rajput thanked Shah Rukh Khan’s Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge character.

Taking inspiration from on-screen Bollywood characters is not a new trend in India. People have always wanted to be a Katrina Kaif or a Shah Rukh Khan for different reasons. Sushant Singh Rajput was no different. In an interview with Hindustan Times, the actor speaks about how SRK helped him to strike a balance between what he wants to do and what he was expected to do.

He says, “It wasn’t like I was unaffected by Bollywood, no. I was a huge fan of Shah Rukh Khan. I remember watching Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) and thinking now here’s a cool dude. He is a great performer, but that’s not what impacted me most. Shah Rukh helped me sort out my confusion about who I should be. This was in the early ’90s and the economy was just opening up – we were seeing Coke cans for the first time, international brands were coming in, and I was fascinated…yet confused. I didn’t know whether to embrace the West or be loyal to our culture. At this point came DDLJ, I was in Class VI, and Raj showed me that it was cool to have a beer, but then he also waited for Simran’s dad’s approval. There was a balance. It was the perfect marriage of an aspiring India and an India trying to hold on to its culture.”

He recalls he would often lip-sync on Shah Rukh songs but not because he aspired to become an actor. For him, one thing led to another and the life went onto make him realise what he was meant for.

Now, the actor is prepping up for his character in Chandamama Door Ke, for which he became the first Indian actor to be trained by professionals at NASA to understand the working of space research centres.

 

“NASA has been kind enough to invite us because they are very strict about everything there. They have been kind enough to give me proper training like they do for the astronauts that they have and I am going to be interacting with real astronauts. It’s not like I am going to pretend that I am an astronaut. I am actually being an astronaut. The only difference will be that I won’t be going to space physically, but in my head I am. All kinds of training that an astronaut does, I am going to make sure that I do,” Sushant told Indianexpress.com.

The film will release in 2018.