Acting was distant dream for SOTY debutante Siddharth

It has been a roller-coaster ride so far for newbie Siddharth Malhotra, who says he assisted film directors and did part-time modelling before landing himself in Karan Johar's 'Student of the Year'.

For the 27-year-old, who is making his debut with the yet-to-be-released film, modelling and acting both happened by chance. Modelling happened by chance as someone asked me 'will you do modeling and get paid?' I felt it was a easy way to earn good money. It was just a part time thing that I was doing, Siddharth said. Later, he came to Mumbai to act in a film that never took off, only to discover that he will have to first take up a job of being an assistant director.

I had never thought of getting into the film industry. When I came to Mumbai four-five years back, I was modelling in Delhi with an agency. Then I was to audition for a film that was for Anubhav Sinha and produced by Adlabs. They selected me as an actor, Siddharth said. I was on a high but the film never worked out. It was a big downer. Then I thought since I am trying to get into this industry I must learn the nitty gritty of films. Hence I took up assisting to understand the technicalities of filmmaking. My modeling agency used to ask us to give auditions for ad films and full-fledged feature films. When I came to Mumbai it was then when the Bollywood bug bit me. And I felt I could get a chance and do something in this industry. It started from there, Siddharth said. The aspiring actor wanted to be part of the film industry but was clueless about how it functions.

I did not know anything about filmmaking or acting. If I don't know anything then I can't just jump into things. I felt I need to know technicalities so that I could have a little knowledge about camera angle, how the shot is taken and all. That is how assisting came into place, he said. His journey in filmdom started from being an assistant director to Johar for 'My Name is Khan'. I was hoping to become either a director or an actor. When I joined Dharma Productions I thought I would do something. I went to Karan's office and managed to get the job of an assistant director. It all came as a surprise and shock, the model-turned-actor said.

Siddharth's experience as an AD did help him in SOTY. The experience did help me in a way like you know what not to do while acting on sets. I got to know lot of things, like how to say lines your properly, show various emotions, understand camera angle and all that, he said. I feel I am very lucky to make my debut as an actor with Dharma Productions and being directed by Karan Johar.

There is no director who could replace him, he added. 'SOTY' has been jointly produced by Johar's Dharma Productions and Shah Rukh Khan under the banner of Red Chillies Entertainment. The film also stars David Dhawan's son Varun, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt's daughter Alia, Rishi Kapoor, Ronit Roy, Kitu Gidwani and Ram Kapoor. It is set to hit theatres on October 19.

-PTI