Siddhant Chaturvedi: I read comments on Reddit calling me 'overrated', gayab ho gaya' after Gehraiyaan, it hurt me
Actor Siddhant Chaturvedi, whose latest film Kho Gaye Hum Kahan is fetching great reviews, opens up on life after Gully Boy, the lull, and more.
It’s been some wait for Siddhant Chaturvedi to see love being given to a performance by him, like the one in his latest Kho Gaye Hum Kahaan. After Gully Boy (2019) transported him to massive fame, he saw a bit of a lull. And then, he went MIA for a year with zero interviews and rare spottings, the reason for which he tells us in this chat.
Talking to us over a video call from his holiday, he bares his heart out, barring one thing- he doesn’t tell us where he is vacationing for a break:
Is ‘relieved’ the word for Kho Gaye Hum Kahan working and getting good reviews?
It was long due after Gully Boy. I needed some motivation again... it’s been a while since it released, followed by Bunty Aur Babli 2, Gehraiyaan, Phone Bhoot. The pandemic happened, I thought we were kind of losing touch with what is working. I was working for three-four years, things were not happening. Especially after Gully Boy, everybody had high expectations saying I am the ‘next big thing’... I felt I let people down. I would also not blame my choices. Consumer behaviour changed. Big scale films became front runners, no one was ready to invest so much money on a newcomer. What I had done was just right before the pandemic, it all released after that. I was disappointed with my ownself, that where is it going. I finally needed this push like Kho Gaye Hum Kahaan.
You decided to stay away from everything for over a year. What prompted you to do this?
I thought mere paas kuchh hai nahi baat karne ke liye, aur mera kaam bolta hai. Jab kaam nahi bol raha with the audience who has moved on to some new kind of cinema... and then there are YouTube influencers, creators. As a newcomer, you are put between 360 degrees of entertainment where you have to compete with everybody. I felt putting stuff out on social media, being spotted, but this is not who I am. I felt I need to work harder to choose the right things.
Staying away for this long... weren’t you bothered about ‘out of sight is out of mind’?
I feel overwhelmed with the love right now, but if people are scatted away I am not going to stand and shout ‘I am spotted, I am going to the gym, I bought a new car’ that’s not the kind of actor or influencer I am. There are so many of them already, everybody has a great life on Instagram. If everyone is an influencer, then who is influenced? I understood my vision is to be there on the screen, maybe digital or big. Obviously, the dream is to be at the box office, but whatever it is, cinema is my way of means to communicate with people. What would I have talked about? I can’t put pics of my vacations, or to award shows who were just giving me one. Initially I loved it after Gully Boy, there was chatter, I was excited. Later I realised I need something substantial.
But social media is also looked at a means of being in touch with fans, solidifying a fan base...
I have nothing against people who do that. Out of sight was on purpose. If I was out of mind and then came with an unexpected performance, it would blow your mind. I have faith in myself. I was nowhere before Gully... suddenly people saw me on the map, I wanted that same effect.
Social media has two sides to it- a powerful tool, and a breeding ground for trolls. You must have faced negative comments too. How do you look at it?
I saw them on Reddit, not on Instagram. I go and read the gossip and blind articles on that website, it is really disturbing.
They call it ‘spilling the tea’...
Yes. Pehle achha lagta tha padh ke, before I had made it, maza aata tha. Par jab khud ke baare mein hota hai toh aankhein khulti hain. They call me arrogant, cocky, overrated. I was underrated before Gehraiyaan, overrated after it, and then they said ‘he has disappeared, bada aaya tha’. That really hurts. I take it in a good way, but after reading, I am not able to sleep that night. I sit at the same window where I sat and dreamt, and decide I will show the world. At times, I almost wrote a reply defending myself from fake profiles, but just before sending it, I would be ‘no yaar, let the perception be, it’s good to break it’ I don’t expect people to be soft on me because I have got it the hard way in life. It is not easy to make it and even harder to sustain it.
