SIDDHANT CHATURVEDI:“I'LL NEVER BE ASHAMED TO TALK ABOUT MY HUSTLE”

The Internet and hip-hop paved the way for the actor’s breakout. Now he’s making massive moves to change the game.

- JESSICA XALXO

“I know my audience. Because I come from them.”

A SWELTERING SUMMER AFTERNOON witnesses the footfall of numerous customers at the local kirana. Spurred by colorful wall murals that promise refreshing respite from the blistering heat, a league of young cricketers boisterously file into the grocery store. Among them is a young boy who requests the vendor for ek (one) chilled bottle of Coke. “Main fridge mein thanda rakhta hoon, toh uska do rupiya extra dena padega. Nahin toh garam le jao (I keep the Coke cold in the fridge so I’ll charge you two more rupees for it, otherwise you can opt for the lukewarm bottle.)” The boy is stupefied by the shopkeeper’s logic, but what he instantly gleans from his words is the unmistakable scruple of asal (real) hustle.

From a tender age, Siddhant Chaturvedi has been “shopping for life.” Now a breakout superstar (who most recently stunned with his layered performance as businessman Zain Oberoi in Gehraiyaan), part of him yearns for anonymity, missing the pilgrimage he used to go on when his mother dispatched him to run errands. Everything was holy about this undertaking; it was during these amblings that the actor found and honed his calling, his craft. “My mom used to send me… aata piswa ke le aao, sabji khareed ke le aao (to run errands)…