School for Stars

For all that, Tusshar doesn’t remember getting any bhav in school. ‘‘Only a handful of teachers were star-struck, they used to look forward to seeing my father at the parent-teacher meetings. But I remember the principal whacking me when I made mistakes,’’ he says. Incidentally, Abhishek Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan, too, studied here.

Unlike many star kids, Tusshar was an above-average student. ‘‘From my first grade till the tenth, I always stood among the first five students in class. I was quite good in studies,’’ he smiles. “And because of this, I was invariably made the monitor. Now monitors are supposed to be there early and ensure other students come in on time. But I would be late almost every day, because I had to drag my sister — who was in the same school — out of the house in the mornings! We really used to look forward to the weekends, when we had two days holidays,’’he adds, laughing.

There are other fond memories of the school. He points towards the gate, and says, ‘‘This is where I used to rush every day as soon as the bell rung for the tiffin break. I never had breakfast at the school canteen, a maid used to bring food from home every day.’’

And that’s probably the only thing that set aside Hindi cinema’s everyman during his schooldays.