The Roshans must have heaved a sigh of relief. Kaabil, Hrithik Roshan’s latest release has hit the bull’s eye at the box office.
A little more than a fortnight after it was released, the revenge drama raked in over Rs100 crores.
“I am really happy that the film has got all the love that it has. This is a big victory for my father,” he said.
Kaabil is the actor’s first hit in three years. It follows the colossal failure that was last year’s Mohenjo Daro.
The pounding that the Ashutosh Gowarikar’s period film took spawned multiple think pieces on Hrithik’s stalled career and where he was headed.
“Honestly, I didn’t get what the fuss was about. Let’s recap – Mohenjo Daro was just one film. Before that, I had Bang Bang that did Rs180 crores at the box office. Before that was Krrish 3 that made Rs240 crores. I have done very, very well in my career and I have also failed. That’s a very normal trajectory of life. You can’t expect to get everything right. Which is why you call this life an adventure. You learn from your mistakes,” the actor told tabla!.
The 43-year-old has a very healthy attitude towards failures.
“For me, even that failure was a good experience. It reveals the truth to you. I love disillusionment because it means the illusion in your head has been shattered. Truth is the only way to progress. I am very happy when I am showed my mistakes. Failures help me recalibrate.”
One would assume that 2016 would be a year that Hrithik would like to erase from his memory.
Not only was Mohenjo Daro a disaster at the box office, there was that very public and equally ugly spat with Kangana Ranaut.
The scandal involving warring exes made headlines for over six months.
Only the actor chalks it as a “year of learnings”.
“I am a student of life and my mission here is to grow into the best I can be. Whenever there is adversity, I enjoy it,” he said.
A self-confessed gym rat, Hrithik uses a fitness analogy to explain how he stayed positive through a tumultuous 2016.
“I know that to become better at something, you have to pay your dues. If you want a bigger muscle or a more chiselled body, you have to lift heavy loads. Any adversity is a gym for my mind. I know that my mind is going to get stronger because it’s going to lift a heavier load.
“I have a sense of humour and a sense of wonder whenever I am faced with a problem of any kind. I believe I have a very analytical mind and I love solving problems,” he added.
Last October, Hrithik joined the growing list of Bollywood actors talking about depression and mental health issues.
“I just feel very strongly about it. I think it’s a subject that’s taboo and it’s been conditioned very incorrectly in our minds. Depression should not be something that makes you lose your self-worth or feel awkward to talk about. Get professional help or talk to people around you.
“Depression is an affliction that affects all of us to different degrees. Most aren’t clinically depressed but all of us have had moments when you think life is worthless; when you don’t want to get out of bed.
“That is not the truth and it’s important to tell people that when you feel like all hope is lost, don’t believe it. It’s your mind in dysfunction while the world is the same. We go to the doctor for a fever, a broken bone, a kidney that is ailing. We need to extend the same courtesy to our minds. Our brain is just another organ in the body. It needs looking after. Your brain is not you; it is an organ you use. It is okay for your brain to not function at its optimum every once in a while. Just get help when that happens.”
When Hrithik talks about that feeling of utter hopelessness when you don’t want to get out of bed, he is talking from experience.
“My entire childhood was full of days like that. I didn’t feel like I was living in a good world. But I found my way out of it. You understand that only through your achievements will you gain self-worth and that will change the model of your world. If you are not feeling good about yourself, you will not see good in the world. The idea is to recreate your world from the inside. Don’t try to change people around you; change yourself first.”
It’s this can-do positivity that’s shaped Hrithik’s 17 years under the arc lights. Interestingly, he doesn’t believe in looking back at the journey that’s been.
“I only look forward. Even on the rare occasion that I do (look back), I realise that its all redundant now. It’s important because it’s made me the man I am, but there is no point in looking back with any nostalgia.”
His debut film Kaho Na…Pyaar Hai was the first time that the actor worked with his father as the leading man.
Kaabil is their sixth collaboration.
“We might be diametrically opposite as people, but when we are working on a film we are aligned towards the same objective. We want to make the best film we can. We manage to find a balance between our sensibilities.”
Hrithik has also managed to strike the right balance with his ex-wife Sussanne Khan.
The exes, who announced the end of their marriage in 2014, have been inseparable since their family vacation in Dubai over the Christmas-New Year break.
They co-hosted a low-key dinner for his birthday and then multiple pre-release screenings of his film Kaabil.
The couple even joined their neighbours Akshay Kumar and wife Twinkle Khanna and actress Gayatri Joshi and her billionaire husband Vikas Oberoi on a triple date recently. Hrithik rubbished all the re-marriage rumours.
“Sussanne and I are friends again. We have always had a very good equation. I am very proud of the fact that we are very good parents to our kids. Today we are friends. I think that comes from the fact that I can’t have a relationship in my life that’s not peaceful. We have tremendous love and respect for each other, but that’s about all”.
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