Buoyed up by the success of his last release MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, actor Sushant Singh Rajput has now focused all his energy on the promotion of his next big ticket film Raabta, scheduled to release on 9 June. During an exclusive interview with IBNS correspondent, in a plush room of TSeries office in Mumbai, the actor talks about his forthcoming film, his relationship status and how does he react to various media stories. Excerpts:

Q You are playing two completely opposite characters in Raabta. One is from the present times whereas the second character belongs to some ancient period.Which one you enjoyed playing more?

I cannot compare them as both the characters offered me something new to try and experiment with. The contemporary character shows that part of me where I suddenly become interesting despite being very boring in real life. That character is funny and charming. The second character was challenging as I needed to learn various new things to get that right on the screen. That gave me kind of a high because as an actor I was being challenged to go all out and portray it brilliantly. Frankly speaking, I said yes to the film because of that second character that belongs to old period.

Q What do you look in a script before saying yes to any project?

Primarily, it is the story that attracts me to a film. Secondly, there should be something which is challenging and baffles me. I should not be able to understand what the story wants to convey and how it needs to be portrayed on screen. If I find a film easy to do and I know I can pull it off without putting in so much of efforts, I will never do it no matter how much money I am being offered for it.

After the release of MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, I had three to four months gap in between because, for some reasons, the film which I was supposed to start right after it did not go on the floors. During that period, many directors, including the ones I so eagerly wanted to work with, came to me with their films. But unfortunately those scripts had nothing to satisfy that actor in me. I declined all those offers and centered my focus on a play. If not all, I am sure almost 50 per cent of them could have done commercially well and I would have received huge money as my last film was a mega hit.

Q You started you career from TV and then forayed into films. How do you see your journey?

Let me tell you one thing that I was a bright student. When I was at Delhi College of Engineering, I was offered a scholarship and was getting offers from several international universities. But somehow those offers did not entice me. I knew I would be getting good money if I accepted them, but instead I quit my course in last year. It was not giving me the kind of creative satisfaction I was in search of. I had joined Shiamak Davar and he encouraged me to take a plunge into acting in theatres, which kind of changed my life forever.

Q Your last release was a massive hit at the box office. How the success of that film has changed you as a person?

I am still the same person. My stardom might be new for those who never considered me an actor before, but for me, nothing has changed. I always considered myself a superstar, even during the time when I was sharing a small one room kitchen flat with seven to eight people in Versova and also after the release of MS Dhoni.

I have played 54 characters till now, including in plays, TV and films. Every character is different. As far as stardom is concerned, the day I dropped out of college in my third year and started dancing behind Aishwarya Rai and Shahid Kapoor, I became a star. Because at that time I was doing something I really wanted to do.

Q How do you react to the stories which lately have been doing the rounds regarding your personal life?

If I read these rumours and take them seriously then it would affect me. However, I do read them at times and it gets to me. Recently, there have been stories that are so new to me that I am also reading them for the first time. I can understand that living in this digital age where there are trending topics every hour, a journalist needs to churn out stories one after another. I have no problems against these amazingly frivolous stories coming out. I am just saying that if these people are investing so much time and energy in writing fiction stories, they should ensure to make it interesting enough.

Trans world features/ibns