Ashish Vidyarthi, says he had a ‘I deserve more’ syndrome

We all have heard of the movie set phrase, ‘Roll sound, camera and action’, before a shot. Well, it seems to have inspired actor Ashish Vidyarthi to no end. “Life is actually one roll. When you’re rolling, you kind of discover [yourself],” smiles the National Award-winning actor. “Yesterday, I came back from [shooting] a negative character. Tomorrow, I am going for something like that in Telugu. And, four days from now, I move into a powerful positive character,” says the actor known for playing antagonist roles.

Talk about Delhi, and the history student from Hindu College, says he’s not a “nostalgic person” but more of ‘what’s next’ person. “I love to go out and meet people. I have been coming quite a lot for my talks,” he says.

But his persona on reel life is far from his real life. Speak to the Aligarh (2016) actor and it’s nothing short of a pep talk. The actor, who has been delivering motivational talks at events, and organisations for the past six years now, was in Gurugram recently to deliver a talk.

With a career spanning over two decades, and more than 200 films across languages, Vidyarthi says he has been continuously reinventing. From a theatre actor to becoming a Hindi film actor hasn’t been an easy ride, confesses the Kaho Naa.. Pyaar Hai (2000) actor. “It’s been periods of being away from home. And challenges of working in the heat and dust, and career issues. All the actors go through ups and downs in their careers and in their lives. And even though people regard me highly, deep down there was upset and anger and a certain bit of I deserve more syndrome,” says Vidyarthi, adding that he plans to release a book soon.

“And as I worked on myself, I found that I am unhappy. I saw people who had much less of what I had and saw them happy. I have seen my parents with a lot less, and so very happy. I connected with that sense of gratefulness,” he adds.

The actor’s positive outlook towards life reflects in all realms. He says, “Life will not always turn exactly the way you planned it. We make life difficult, and then we try to solve it. My methodology is to simplify things and share them with life examples.”

Talking more about his tryst with motivational speaking, he says, “Simple people are happy for no reason. Each one of us feels threatened in the presence of others. I let people know this is nothing new, and this happens to each one of us. I bring people down to [their] childhood when it was completely okay to ask people for help, crack jokes, or pull each other’s legs,” he says.

“When we grow older, we start getting caught up with ourselves. We try and live up to an image. It’s a dystopian world where things aren’t connected. But life feels light when we can communicate, joke or laugh on ourselves,” he shares.

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