From Anil Kapoor to Abhishek Bachchan, there are several actors whose first films got shelved, however, that might have affected him but didn’t stop them from making it big in the entertainment industry. Another such actor, who didn’t give up even after his first film got shelved, has now become a star.
The actor we are talking about lost his father when he was just 11 and to fulfill his father’s dream of seeing him as an actor, he came to Mumbai and later earned the title of national crush. He is none other than Rohit Saraf.
Rohit Saraf was just 11 when his father passed away. The actor completed his early education at the Saint Francis D’Assisi High School and went to St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai for graduation. He shifted to Mumbai after he started modeling. He revealed in an interview with Bollywood Bubble that he started at 15 and did a television show for Channel V and after that, he bagged his first feature film as lead in John Abraham’s production Banana. He went through multiple rounds of auditions and worked on the film for three months. However, the film never saw a release.
He said, “Two years went by and it didn’t release and in those two years everyone told me you shouldn’t take up more work right now because you will overexpose yourself. The market will be different for you when the films come out. So I believed them and they were right. So I didn’t talk up any work for two years at that time. What happened was the initial month that I spent in Bombay I spent that time to build relationships with casting directors by making sure I go for every single audition and being very respectful.”
He added, “I built that relationship with everyone, so when I didn’t take up any work for two years, I would repeatedly call me for different auditions but I would say ‘No’. So eventually people stopped calling me. And when I realized that the film is shelved, I had to start all over again. I called up those casting directors. A lot of time they took a jibe at me by asking, ‘What happened about your film?’”
However, he didn’t go back home and rather started all over again and got his first film, Dear Zindagi alongside Alia Bhatt. He essayed the role of Alia’s brother in the film and after this there was no looking back. Rohit then appeared in Yash Raj Films’ comedy-drama Hichki, starring Rani Mukerji and Priyanka Chopra and Farhan Akhtar’s The Sky Is Pink. However, it was OTT with which he rose to stardom.
He appeared in Anurag Basu’s Ludo and Netflix series Mismatched which gained him immense stardom and made him a star. Not only this, the romantic drama Mismatched also earned him the title of national crush and his fan following among girls kept growing. The actor then won hearts in the role of Hrithik Roshan’s brother in Vikram Vedha and recently made his debut as lead actor in Ishq Vishk Rebound.
Talking about being called National Crush, Rohit Saraf told India Today, “I have secretly started enjoying it. There is still a certain amount of awkwardness because it’s like ‘Oh god! stop it.’ But at the same time, a part of me is just really flattered. I really enjoy it.”
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