Strike two!

Telugu romantic hero Siddharth takes his second step into Bollywood after Rang De Basanti, as a carom player in Striker

He describes it as "50 pairs of in-laws in a room judging one boy". Siddharth is talking about staging a scene in his movie Striker, in which he plays a star carom player from Malwani, Surya, who pockets big money when he turns out as the champ. For the movie, Siddharth, his family's most "rubbish" carom player, had to perform before 150 fantastic champions as they staged the underground playing areas.

"I felt them watching me, judging meu2026 it was ridiculous," he says laughingly as he crunches through cereal during this breakfast interview at his swanky hotel in Juhu, "Any small mistake and I would hear 'tsk!' from 150 people. That's enough then you can't bring on this all-conquering champion look in your eyes. It was really difficult!"

Five coins, in seconds

Speaking allegorically, Siddharth sees confident carom playing as a piece of complicated choreography in a dance sequence. After all, try pocketing five coins one after the other, in seconds. This is why he had to specially train under a player from Malwani, Zayed, for the Chandan Arora-directed film (Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon, Main, Meri Patni Aur Woh), releasing on February 5.

Striker took its time coming, but Siddharth is visibly excited when he talks about the film, set in the '80s. Surya is a poor player from the ghetto who hits it big in the underground gambling carom scene, but is unable to pull himself out of the vortex of his circumstances.

A long wait

This is the Hindi movie Siddharth says he's been waiting for, four years after Rang De Basanti became a phenomenon. Siddharth, and the rest of the Rang De martyrs, became household names soon after the movie released in 2006 and became a juggernaut, like 3 Idiots today.

Siddharth played Karan Singhania, the poor little rich kid who takes a shot at his own father (Anupam Kher) when he and his gang tackle political corruption.

"I think my role cost us in the international arena (Rang De Basanti didn't make it to the Oscars), but helped the incredible commercial success and jingoism the movie brought about here," states Siddharth, talking about Rang De Basanti's controversial ending.

The actor was then reportedly in the running for the lead role of Rakeysh Mehra's Delhi-6, for which he spent months prepping. Rumours go that he was unceremoniously replaced by Abhishek Bachchan, but during this interview, he refuses to be dragged into the past.

"The way I see it, Delhi-6 had a destiny of its own and found its place. It would be silly conjecture on my part to dwell on Delhi-6 when I have a lovely film like Striker coming up."

Siddharth says he turned down dozens of ensemble films in Bollywood, searching for a solo vehicle that would send out a message.

He didn't cool his heels he went back home to Hyderabad and consolidated his standing as a romantic hero that he set out with in the 2005 Telugu hit Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana, directed by Prabhu Deva. It made him an overnight star over there, a year before Rang De Basanti happened.

"People ask me if I'm the Aamir Khan of the Telugu industry. I tell them, 'No, I'm the Shah Rukh Khan, the chocolate hero, the one who sings songs and runs around trees,'" says Siddharth, while that little nugget sinks in.

An unusual beginning

He blends in the stereotypical with the unusual because Siddharth isn't a conventional hero. He likes nothing more than to involve himself in several technical departments of his films and with Striker, he has even produced the music, putting together an ensemble of composers from Amit Trivedi (Siddharth has sung his track Bombay Bombay) to Blaaze.

His love of films started early. Growing up both in Chennai and Delhi, Siddharth mock-groans as he remembers how he was bracketed as both the 'Madrasi' and the 'north Indian'. "My childhood was hardly regular. I watched Pyaasa and Thorn Birds when I was three and a half years old," he says.

Siddharth reveals he always wanted a career in films, but his father insisted that he have an education that would help him "stand on my own two feet if I fell on my backside in films". He finished his BCom, then his MBA, all the time honing his passion with his theatre group.

Armed with his degrees, he hung around Mani Ratnam in Chennai until the ace director took him on as his assistant on Kannathil Mutthamittal. "Anyone who grew up in my time and saw Nayagan, was profoundly influenced by Mani Ratnam. Working with him made me learn filmmaking through a bizarrely quick system. He was a storehouse of information and had an answer for my every question."

It's not personal

The only time though that Siddharth bristles is when his personal life crops up. In the break between Rang De Basanti and now, it has been tabloid fodder, first when his marriage broke up and later on, when he was reportedly seeing Soha Ali Khan.

"Well, I don't read gossip," he replies over whether the rumours bother him, "I'm fiercely passionate about my private life. People tell me I shouldn't bother because it's part and parcel of being a celebrity, but I didn't sign up for this.

I wish the media would do more research though; they make me out to be Casanova reincarnate!"
It isn't a bad reputation though, for a chocolate hero, but Siddharth is hoping for big change through Striker. "I'm hoping I'll get more of Striker's kind of cinema and I do know that I'd love to work with Chandan Arora every couple of years."