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Spotlight EXCLUSIVE: Aashiqui boy Rahul Roy on why he walked away from films, insecurity, Bigg Boss, marriage
The original Aashiqui boy Rahul Roy recently chatted with us for our segment Spotlight. The actor opened up on walking away from films, taking a sabbatical, marriage, insecurities, being an outsider, Mahesh Bhatt and so much more. Read.
The original Aashiqui boy Rahul Roy recently chatted with us for our segment Spotlight. The actor, who attained overnight stardom with Mahesh Bhatt starrer Aashiqui (1990), opened up on walking away from films, taking a sabbatical, marriage, insecurities, being an outsider, Mahesh Bhatt and so much more. He reiterated, 'he is not behind stardom, but only wants to stay relevant with his craft'. Rahul started off huge with Aashiqui but later lost the steam following a few failures. But, the actor now endeavors to pick up different projects which he is "enjoying" a lot.
Revealing that it was he who decided to take a sabbatical and walk away, Rahul told Pinkvilla, "I walked away and that was my choice. Industry ka kuch lena dena nahi tha." He shared how he ended up becoming an actor, which by the way he never thought about. "Whether it is a privilege or a curse, I came into the industry not to become a star but I was fortunate that an article on my mom had left {Mahesh} Bhatt Sahab impressed and he wanted to meet her and then he asked my mother if I wanted to act after he saw my pictures. I was intrigued by Bhatt Sahab. I never thought about being a film actor, star toh door ki baat hai."
He continued, "I met him, within 5 minutes, he asked me to do the film. His equation and relationship with me was very different. The film despite everyone saying that 'yeh bade baal wala hero and not expect it to do well' was received well. 30 years down the line, I feel privileged to be a part of the film."
Back in the day, Rahul had a notorious life outside doing films but he decided to "settle down" once he found the girl he loved. "I had a lot of girlfriends but when you cross the threshold of 30, I wanted to settle down. I met a wonderful girl and decided to get married. And when I married, being an actor I did not think I could balance both cinema and personal life. Very difficult to do that because the cinema takes a lot out of you. That’s when I took a break thinking I want to work on my personal life."
Apart from marriage, he revealed that his films weren't doing that great and he was not happy as an actor and hence he decided on a sabbatical. "Having said that a lot of the films I was doing then were not doing well. Not that I was not getting offers, the big banners might not come but there was still an influx of offers but you know, my growth as an actor was stagnant. I did not want to do the same thing. There was a combination of a lot of things (that he decided to walk away)."
"What I thought was a sabbatical for a year perhaps, went on for two years and then my wife at that time wanted to shift to Australia and I realised that it was difficult to connect because the cinema had changed, the advent of agencies had come. This was all new for me and I couldn’t keep up. I tried to approach and meet people but sadly the dates couldn’t match. I realised you cannot stay away from Mumbai and pursue your dreams," he recalled.
Touching on how by this time, the new generation actors had come in which left him feeling insecure for a brief period. "In 2005-2006, I was in an insecure place because new generation, So when I was approached for Bigg Boss, I did it. I thought even if I am in the house for a week or two it would be enough. That’s when I realised that there is an audience who might want to see me. But, I couldn't do much during this time."
"My wife and I took divorce in 2014 and then in 2015, it took me a year and a half to reconnect and ask for work. Fortunately for me, I got a couple of movies that I am very proud of. Of course, it has taken us a little time to get it going because these are not big banner films," he shared.
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