Rohit Chaudhary: Born in Etawah but made in Lucknow!

‘Bareilly ki Barfi’ actor Rohit Chaudhary feels that his acting career has entirely shaped up in Lucknow. Before his debut film, that was exclusively shot in the state capital, Rohit had spent around six years in the city which he gladly tags as his real training period.

“My debut film ‘Bareilly…’ and ‘Jabaria Jodi’ both were shot here, then last year I shot my latest OTT series ‘Jove J Action’ here and currently I am shooting for ‘Jogira Sara Ra Ra’ with Nawazuddin (Siddiqui) sir. I was born in Etawah but made in Lucknow! My other two projects ‘Bahut Hua Samman’ and ‘Kanpurie’ too were also shot in Uttar Pradesh (Varanasi and Kanpur),” said the actor.

While taking a stroll at Uttar Pradesh Sangeet Natak Academy campus, Rohit got nostalgic. “It feels I have always been here. I have done numerous plays at SNA, Ravindralaya, Bhartendu Natya Akademi and Rai Umanath Bali Auditorium from 2003 to 2008. I lived here and nurtured my dream of becoming an actor.”

After his intermediate, Rohit came down to Lucknow. “I had no clue what I’ll be doing; the only thing I knew was that ‘ab padhna nahi hai!’ So, I tried to get admission in fashion designing course but could not, so did a certificate course in computers and finally graduated from a Kanpur University.”

In the same period, he went to watch the popular play ‘Shhhh…Century Buddha’ and realised that’s what he wanted to do. “That was the first play of my life and I went to meet its director Jitendra Mittal. Soon, I joined his theatre group and started with odd jobs, followed by backstage, then on-stage I started with one dialogue role and then after three years I became the lead actor in the same play. Later, I worked with all theatre groups in Lucknow,” he said.

In 2008 he joined National School of Drama and after completing his course, did musical shows like ‘Zangoora’ and ‘Jhumroo’ for four years. “I did two films, one of which was parallel lead with Pankaj Tripathi, when they were shelved. I shifted to Mumbai and then got ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’ that earned me immense love and praise. It’s the only film of mine that my mother has seen in theatre,” he shared.

Besides, he has completed shooting for film ‘Om’ in Mumbai which stars Aditya Roy Kapoor and Sanjana Sanghi. “I am happy that with ‘Love J Action’ I have come out of that protagonist’s friend or a comic role image. Like every actor, I too want to play the leading roles, but I feel my journey has just took off. Now, I want to play characters which may have less screen presence but have a lasting impact must. Like in my last series, my character was a game-changer!”