“I had given myself five years to make it in the industry, had I not succeeded I would have joined politics and be campaigning in Mandi, instead of promoting my film”, says Aayush Sharma.
The actor is back with the action thriller Ruslaan, and for the first time in his six-year career, he has stepped out of Salman Khan productions. Aayush made his in 2018 with Loveyatri and starred in the 2021 gangster drama, Antim: The Final Truth, both produced by his brother-in-law Salman Khan’s production house. (Aayush is married to Salman Khan’s sister Arpita). The actor candidly confesses “I was to do Kwatha post Loveyatri with Karan Butani, which was an outside film but it didn’t work out and then came Antim. Thus two back-to-back films with SK Productions, While I was shooting for Antim, Ruslaan with Karan was already in talks. But for me, I needed to step out and find my name as an actor. Find good cinema that I want to resonate with which I believe in, and have my own experiences. Somewhere down the line when you’re working with people who perceive you differently, as on the home set am always called “Baba”, everyone calls me “Baba” fondly, but on Karan’s set. I was just AS. Though it is a small thing from being called Baba to AS, it also comes with responsibility, in the sense that you are making decisions. I won’t say it felt liberating but made me feel very responsible. I learned what it meant to be the protagonist and stepped up. I believe the journey has to be done. I’m still in the exploration phase. I am not established as yet, am still finding my footing. I want to dabble in many things and meet new people, also it is a sense of self-respect things you can go back to your family with your own story of successes and failure.”
Aayush who hails from a non-film family, says there is an interesting dichotomy,” the outsiders feel I am an insider, while the insiders feel am an outsider.”
As tabloids had gone on a frenzy that all was not well between him and brother-in-law Salman, Aayush laughed it off saying: we are both men of very few words, especially in the public domain. We both share a great bond when we meet each other and are together, but all this is in the privacy of our homes. In the public domain, one finds it overwhelming, because you are always meeting each other and then when we come out we are supposed to engage in social niceties and it comes out as pretentious. Also, people need to realize there is backstage where we have already shared pleasantries and on stage or when the paps are shooting, we are not going to do it again for the public. I find it very weird when one has to put on pretenses”.
Aayush who plays the non-conformist Ruslaan in the film, says it is his mentor Salman Khan who is Bollywood’s non-conformist star.” He follows his heart, wherever that takes him in every aspect of his life, be it the films he does, or whatever it is what he believes in.”
However, Aayush reveals that there is an actor whom he hugely admires Thalapathy Vijay “I am fascinated by him. I love Vijay Garu’s films but am equally fascinated by him as a person. In this era of social media when everyone is giving a peek at their life, he is someone who keeps his life so private that whatever you get to see is him on screens, So that element of curiosity is there, one wants to know about what he does.”
Ruslaan hits screens on 26th April.