Sushant Singh Rajput on why he’s not afraid of FAILURE! : Bollywood News

I have always found Sushant Singh Rajput very different from any of the young actors. He's not merely a star who has a massive potential to be a super star in the coming days. Sushant is an actor who loves to read, has a mind of his own, and believes in his own thought process instead of banking on borrowed thoughts and ideas. In other words he's truly different and naturally so. I spoke to him for around forty minutes and tried to figure out his mind space and came back richer intellectually. In the first part of my conversation with him, we talk about his forthcoming film Raabta. He also gives a very interesting insight on why one must try to attain equilibrium in mind and why one should not be afraid of failure. Read on!

Sushant Singh Rajput on why he’s not afraid of FAILURE!

When we look at the promos of Raabta and songs, for example ‘Ikk Vari’ has 52 million views now. The title track is having 35 million views; the song ‘Boyfriend’ is also going wild too. Were you anticipating this? You can get an idea by the number of views on your video, if it’s working and how people are responding. And 52 million means that the music is connecting.
Yes of course. But there is this one thing that I don’t understand completely is that, how does any sort of music do well? And if it does well, how does it translate into box-office numbers? I have seen films that have massively hit numbers, but it didn't open well. I have seen films which were not appreciated for its content, but just because it had great songs it did a good opening. It went on because all the songs were so good. So I don’t know what actually happens, because there is no pattern. It’s open to me to believe that I would be right in either of the choices. I mean this means something when watching a movie and also means nothing because I have seen films with massive hit songs and it didn't even do an opening. Now I can understand that the film was not good, or that it did not resonate with the people. But then first day should be high and it should decrease drastically. But even the first day was not good. So I don’t know what translates for the movie going audience.

I can tell from my experiences that many times when music does well, the film does well too. For example ‘Chul’ from Kapoor and Sons had 15 million views and it translated with the audiences. Recently Half Girlfriend had a great response, and music played an important role in opening of the film. So yes usually when music is good it opens well. But as you said so, M. S. Dhoni – The Untold Story for that matter, songs became popular much later.
One thing that I want to point out here is that I think what we do with the promotions is that, we overdo it. I might be wrong. We don’t know what works exactly so we do everything. What I feel is before the release of the film, the sort of awareness that a certain film is coming on a particular date is mandatory. That is important. We need to make sure that the movie going audience knows about it, that this movie is coming on this date and here is the trailer. And after that no matter what I do, I dance or take off my clothes, no matter what I do, you won’t watch my film if you don’t like the trailer. Word of mouth is very important. So this is what I am trying to point out, that the trailer is a big differentiator in terms of opening of the film. And then obviously the content of the film and word of mouth takes over. So I am slightly positive on the numbers that we are getting, because these are not just independent songs. These songs completely define the state of the mind of the characters at that point of time in the film. Even ‘main tera boyfriend, tu meri girlfriend’ (just promotional) defines my character for you. He is actually like that. And all the other songs such as Raabta help the character take the movie forward. ‘Ikk Vari’ condenses 4-5 scenes into one song. So yes I am slightly positive that people like the songs because that’s what the film is. So they would probably like the film as well.

One more thing that I want to say is in terms of trends is that, reincarnation stories work well at the box office. The fact that Baahubali 2 has done this extra ordinary business being a period drama is another case in point. Do you think of it as an advantage that these movies are working well these days?
No I don’t think like that. Actually 80 percent I don’t think that this is the case and 20 percent I don’t want this to be the case. I genuinely think that it is not the genre of the film that decides how big or how good the film would be in terms of numbers. The most important thing is how it’s been told. It’s my personal opinion. If I give one script to two different film makers, you’ll have two different films. And those two different films would do different numbers at the box office. And a very important thing about reincarnation is that, there are people who believe in reincarnation and there are people who don’t. Like me, I don’t believe in reincarnation. But when I was reading the script it all made sense to me. And I was like; let me believe in reincarnation for 3 to 4 hours because it’s a nice story. This is not just me, it is everybody. We know that worm holes don’t exist. But when Christopher Nolan makes it in Interstellar in order to tell you a story, you actually believe it. In Jungle Book when animals talk to each other in Hindi and English, we know it doesn’t happen but we completely buy it. Because when a movie catches my attention it keeps me into the film and nothing else. First thing is narrative, second is visuals and you just have to make sure for those 2 hours all the other important things I was thinking about should be out of my mind. If that works for those 2 hours, it will work. Then it doesn’t matter if it’s on reincarnation.

I had these questions for you because you just had M. S. Dhoni – The Untold Story and people suddenly have these expectations that what next after Rs. 100 crores. We also realize that you have done Kai Po Che, which was a very nicely told story. Do you feel this pressure now in terms of box office expectations?
Again there are two things. First is, am I aware of the repercussion? Yes I am very much aware of the repercussions it will have. If I have series of three flop films and they don’t make money, I would stop getting films that I want to do. And I know it for sure I won’t because I just don’t take films on their face value. I will just conveniently sit; I have done it in the past. When M. S. Dhoni – The Untold Story released, the film that was supposed to start next got put off. And I had three to four months in my hand. Everybody got to know and I was offered many films. There were 1-2 film makers that I always wanted to work with. The scripts weren’t bad and I knew I can pull off those characters, hence I decided to do nothing and I randomly took a book and I was trying to adapt it into a play. I didn't make a penny. I could have gone with any of those 2 film makers that I really wanted to work with. I could have made millions. I could have another film which could do well. So this is something that I know about myself that when I sign a film I really have to be excited about that film. And then the engagement in the film keeps me going in a film. So that is the most important thing. I can opt for no money for those 3 4 moths. So yes am I aware about repercussions. Yes, because if I don’t get film then I’ll do anything that excites me on TV or theatre or short film. I’ve written 23 short films. It won’t be in anyway less exciting than what I am doing right now. So yes I really don’t care. I have always said this. It might sound selfish and arrogant but this is what it is. I can’t lie. I don’t think about anybody when I am signing a film and when I am doing the film. It is only when I am saying or promoting the film is when I think about everybody. Till then I don’t think about anybody. I slogged a lot for Bymokesh. Bymokesh is as close to me as Dhoni is. It didn't do well and didn't do numbers. Monday I was completely fine. I wasn’t forcing myself to be positive on Monday but I was fine. And Dhoni released, it did massively well. And again Monday I was normal. I should be flipping right now but I was completely fine. Any kind of ups and downs would only affect my 3 days. Monday is completely mine again. So should I be worried after Dhoni has done well, I have to maintain that now? First of all I am one of many parameters that decide the fate of the film. Even if I was the differentiator, it doesn’t concern me. Simple math, I want to take care of 180 days and not 3 days. So I’ll keep doing films till stories engage me. And there are chances that I would fail but we should be more liberal to failures. Failures are very under appreciated. So we should if an actor is trying to do something new and he fails, he shouldn’t be completely erased. They should be given a chance so that they can do this again and again so that they can come up with something really fresh. So I feel there are chances that I would fail and it is very good. I want massive failures. I don’t think about numbers till the day of the release.