a lot of books in the head I mean it helps you know if you've got some new fresh ideas and it's better than you know talking you got to be careful who you're talking to it off it rubs off you know if you like people is a cliche that you're known by the company you keep encourage of the five people around you there you go so I mean you know you be careful maybe it's better off sometimes reading a book I feel there then you know just hanging out for the sake of but maybe you're lucky you have five great nice people around you then do you get a little bored in Bollywood sometimes oh I get a little bit bored in in Bombay because I can't go out much and there's nothing to it celebrity it's the climate and it's the fact that there's no park to feed the ducks in like whatever so we suffer on that level and and it goes deep you know that means people are kind of addicted more to you know in


people are kind of addicted more to you know in social media and indoor things and become insular I don't even kind of really connect to each other sometimes yeah that's all I mean whatever each to their own but I'm saying for me this business of not being able to walk down the road you know maybe quite bare in the pub and evening well it's a little less social so I kind of get a bit bored and then I might be mine early you know self-destructive as in I have a couple of drinks in order to kind of just okay man yeah it's okay but you know I just notice that it's happening a bit because of boredom I just you should get into podcast maybe oh and you're great or just act in films I mean I'm in a DP total or thing in my life I don't have any in toxicant yeah what does YouTube stimulants in terms of information videos help me a lot yes so I see I see a lot of myself in you yeah that's


see a lot of myself in you yeah that's one thing secondly I want to ask you about the last 10 years yeah before sacred games happen yeah do you kind of feel like you know you were in some kind of or difficult phase in life like you know when you're talking about bad patches way I've never really you know I had a friend of mine come and spend my wife's birthday with us in England recently and he was really like so comfortable and he looked like he was you know Lord so-and-so and he's not really I mean nice but he looked like he was really flamboyant and comfortable and happy but I am I've always been a little even though I'm really privileged compared to a lot of people I I feel it could all end you know so I have a very strong sense of yeah and doom I could could descend at any moment so I'm really not that comfortable and I haven't really ever been even when the success was on no even when the success was


the success was on no even when the success was on you're like okay this is a phase and perhaps it's because of understanding a little bit about history mmm that and I'm also quite into mythology in the Greek myths and the Indian myths and all this kind of stuff so you're aware that the gods are watching you know so you shouldn't be too arrogant yeah hubris and all that so so um yeah it was stuff I mean there times but luckily I think I've always had it depends what your sites are if you want to be you know the greatest most successful actor in Bombay then you know you would probably constantly be disappointed but I'm constantly working and constantly working yeah so I thought balance even my wife has that balance is important that but I I have always had a fairly steady and an interesting job no matter what over the last 10 years including sacred games so every year the contents been changing getting better if you ask me are you happy being an actor and it was


me are you happy being an actor and it was still 1995 and we're still making the same kind of movies you know maybe not but luckily there's been like a growth if yeah what's been like the worst moment of your life the worst moment of my life I could I don't know there's been some run-ins with the law there's been some you know nobody motion of a fan you know I'm my father died that wasn't that wasn't very nice what did you well that all this is going to end in a hospital room with tubes in you God knows when does that trouble you it and trouble me but it makes me aware you know and I think about it and I just say okay so that's where I I don't understand people who never think about it I think everything is actually driven by by the fact that we're going to die you know whether we understand it or not yeah that's why we like things or not like things that's what it all boils down to yeah you


that's what it all boils down to yeah you know you're getting like that's why art is great because it's like um you're capturing a moment in in film or in or in hot thought or you like even a painting or whatever you're like freezing time and saying it's kind of defying its defying the Oblivion of time rate of death by saying okay I'll do something that will may be lost if that ascribing force as an actor no yeah I mean for myself I mean I actually the only thing that's driven me as an actor which i think is the same is to do do a film that i can sit down at 2:00 in the morning and watch myself you know and say yeah that's really great i did that and i honestly I think lark Upton's one of those amma sacred games one of those i don't know about so many you do there are a few yeah you know what Lyle kept on and sacred games yeah this slightly more gritty you know


games yeah this slightly more gritty you know yes is that because you've become slightly more gritty in your own life definitely I have also grown I mean a role like this I mean actually the sound record has told me you're not sounding like the guy on day two you know so I had to go and work on it and I had a lot of time in Rajasthan alone and I spend a lot of time alone just thinking thinking that this guy is like a like oh so they were like oh it's like Clint Eastwood my director said and I said no no he's not like Clint Eastwood is he's like a wolf you know Clint Reese was really cool and laid man this guy's more out there feral and more wild like this thing so he's got that you know so all that how do you find that and get into that so it's not just me it's also the films have have become like that people are writing more interesting stuff you know what a story what I


more interesting stuff you know what a story what I think age has taught me humility and also appreciation of so many things and and then you slow down a little bit and you're a little less arrogant like I was saying and you you know a little more understanding of things around also that thing you said about being slightly stressed all the time but you don't know when success will last and when you're bad theirs will start yeah how's that reduced with age because that happens to all of us man well I mean I you know if you're lucky you're kind of in a decent place with friends and family and actually um I've learned the kind of life I've had and I'll bring about like you know you don't need so much money I mean after a point you see guys just being silly with you know with money I mean of course there's no end you can have money taught you what's money taught me having guys not not very much what I mean when did you


not not very much what I mean when did you realize that you're privileged in life um I think is I was privileged in terms of education in terms the many things that can prove you know make you feel privileged beyond money like an education can make is a great privilege which I really didn't think was a privilege when it was happening yeah but it is like I mean if you if like my driver had gone to that school maybe he would be like CEO of you know Britannia I don't know yeah so that that kind of thing is like crazy to think about I also feel your education has kind of played a role in your fill in choices right now like something like yeah of course I mean in everything and everything you do you're colored by that kind of thing your value system and particularly you know some of these schools can really teach you about the important things in life also as they say you become more walk through low grade education so walk is like you become more aware right a 360-degree


is like you become more aware right a 360-degree view what have you learned from Fame but I'm not really a fan of Fame I don't think is enjoy no I don't think it's useful at all I think it's in fact quite a hindrance and it's quite quite annoying unfortunately in India sometimes you have to be someone special in order to get things done normally like if you you know just want to get things done normally it helps if you're somebody which is little sad but also let me let me tell you that you've inspired a lot of guys who are like around my age yeah so just be classy be charming be resilient well so that's that's an outcome of your fame well okay I mean if you do something and you spread the word then that's nice I mean for me personally I'd rather you know go to Goa and walk around without being necessary recognized I love being an IDI start mmm well you know there's places I can go where it's fine you just


places I can go where it's fine you just you know your hangouts change yeah but um I think money can give you a lot of things that you think n-no I mean you know just like I mean there's some let's say you're mr. Ambani or something I mean you don't need to be famous I mean you have the world at your feet so money can also do that fame is in fact a hindrance to getting things done does it take away from your peace I'm sure a little bit but what it gives you is way way way more I mean it's not peace is the most important thing so it doesn't take away your peace I mean what's your advice you shouldn't look for peace on chapati if you're famous what look for it somewhere else with sorrows carrillo like coming up right on she like you know she's becoming super famous whatever advice to her like both in terms of Fame and in terms of career you know after a point I mean things change and outlooks


know after a point I mean things change and outlooks Jay I mean there's not so much advice really you know she's got a head screwed on pretty straight so I mean I just say the last time we had a chat about this was to be as original and just to be herself you know and also to enjoy the work and enjoy acting and to think like a actor rather than then be too focused on wanting to be a star what's competition of a big part of your life like a big part of your mind any existence especially early 2000s yeah it kind of was I mean competition was important then it was in a big part of my life but I realized once when you know when Gerald Sanjay that went to jail he didn't help me much so I realized that wishing ill on your on your you know he owes yes doesn't help you the only thing that can really help you is is you doing better improving yourself yeah competing with your self yeah competing with yourself really


competing with your self yeah competing with yourself really it sounds a bit boring but that's the best competition because they call stars right we're call stars meaning there's a galaxy of stars you're not called something that's there's only one of yeah sobic that means that everyone is appreciated for having their own way of doing things like as an actor you like different people because the same scene can be done so differently by different guys yeah and that difference is what makes it interesting sorry sir yes chef so you know when I talk to you there's so many layers of like intellect I want you to give your top three book recommendations and then your top three learning recommend okay what do you do top three books would be I think the Fountainhead by Ayn Rand I really like PG Woodhouse and the Jeeves and Wooster stories they're really funny and any collection of ghost stories by mr James what does it add to your mind well there's a amazing atmosphere and right reading if you're reading something


atmosphere and right reading if you're reading something you're interested in there's a whole process that happens there's a connection to the words that I use the mental images that are evoked in your mind there's kind of like a interaction between the brain and the page that is just I think keeps the brain really interestingly engaged and keeps you imagination is like a imaginative workout yeah and it's and so I mean you know cheaper than making a movie you can get an insight into a different world and and great writers and good writers with language can just create a certain rhythm and a certain kind of style yeah you know like Emma I mean Henry James for example and all these the great writers yeah they come in the classics yeah these guys are unbelievable in terms of the atmosphere that they can just create like Charles Dickens for example I mean you know I just outstanding like today like I'd you know you're almost 50 so how do you stimulate a servant Lee now oh there's so


you stimulate a servant Lee now oh there's so many things I mean the you you're still being offered really interesting roles so films and work is a main part of it like you know planning that and then also you know planning a nice holiday with friends and and celebrating life in the right way with family and like you know great bottle of wine and looking forward to I think balancing like a patch of hard work followed by a kind of celebration with kind of usually food and drink of some sort so you you're really good and you deny yourself yeah and then you indulge yeah yes it's that kind of when you're doing something like like a plan which is so - yeah are you bringing the darkness from inside you it's not it's not even it's not really dark it's like heavy and there is kind of like an animal there and you have to find that somewhere and once you find it I think you change yeah in a sense and but I came back from that outdoor a


sense and but I came back from that outdoor a slightly different person people were looking at me like you look different because you know you can change if you keep doing things like this somewhere your movies stay with you forever I don't know I guess partially but you know they were always there it's just you know that they're in your blood so you just have to magnify certain but some things stay depends how long you do it you know why should a young person go watch this film because it's a it's a it's a cool revenge drama that's why that's the what that's why you should go and see any film is because it's entertaining to watch as in you know it's like a really nice story but this is a unique film there's been no film that kind of captures it's it's like a proper cinematic experience you see it on big screen today everyone's making CG movies and every kind of battle sequence looks the same with these you know cloudcrowd multiplication techniques and people also Wapping


know cloudcrowd multiplication techniques and people also Wapping history and I don't know what's going on I mean of course we have interesting movies somewhere but this is like like an Indian superhero God are set in a very real time yeah which William Dalrymple just written a book called the anarchy so you could almost call it like it was set in the Badlands during during the Anarchy on the cursed earth like Judge Dredd yeah beautiful so yeah again a mental stimulant it's kind of a mental stimulant well hopefully I'm inside the effort made by the cinematographers and the director to go to these forts and these locations in India yeah where you know they've been dead for hundreds of years and to come alive on screen again it's quite fascinating okay seven my last segment of this pot house for you is something I can only ask you because I feel like I can have the conversation with you at this level what do actors do with the money so you make money through a film or whatever and then what


make money through a film or whatever and then what do you do you invested are you dude it's a good question I don't know what actors do but I know a lot of people what you don't ok I'll tell you I I spend it I save some of it I mean there's always the thought that you know it'll all end tomorrow like I told you do you think about money and losing money you know I'll tell you something this that guy just fell over here yeah right yeah so I mean that frightens me and it worries me but doesn't completely surprised me because I think that can happen to any of us at any time so I spend more than half of it and in case I don't fall over tomorrow I keep some of it and I invest it and I look after it to kind of keep things going and and money cannot be enjoyed without a certain amount of culture then much I can tell you what do you mean can you elaborate yeah like if you've


you mean can you elaborate yeah like if you've got cash I mean how do you so how do you how to convert that into enjoyment that conduit is is culture because whether it's listening to music whether it's like you know having a nice drink of something good or you know going somewhere interesting or watching something we're engaging the senses somehow and money's no good in the bank basically you need to I mean it might give you a sense of security and some people make the mistake because of the environment they live in um the most fun thing that they find to do is to make the money and feeling of making it is what they live on which is not what I do so I really enjoy converting it into fun into experiences yes okay but in terms of your personal finances do you invest in businesses but you gotta balance it right I mean or they put it all in the Punjab National Bank you'll be in trouble so you you know across in India cross between property and you


you know across in India cross between property and you know certain very safe stocks and shares and kind of banks that are boring on the interest but are solid yeah so things like that no I wouldn't get too adventurous with with the markets either so I mean one hopes the economy will do well but you know we never know diversity in investment okay yeah got it beautiful I'm you learn that over time it's kind of common sense I mean you know don't put all your eggs in one basket is what you're taught when you're a care again reading hahaha you read about personal finance and all that as well a little bit but this is more moral of the story what is that story that says don't put all your eggs in one basket like a Jakarta tale one of those comics you read when you're a kid yeah I mean everyone knows more yeah not as an active Norris among the Indian film industry but could you give a young 22 year old 23 year old human some career advice


22 year old 23 year old human some career advice well if you if you you know I think you got to find your vocation you got to find what really is called a vocation is from Latin so it's like a voice that speaks to you that tells you this is where you should be a lot of people in the wrong job if you find the right job for yourself and hopefully you really love it you know you have to love it yeah and and it's all changing now I don't know I mean those classic jobs like doctor and lawyer and there's so many things gonna be you do over a part yeah so follow your heart as long as if you're passionate about it you might be good at it and on an emotional level what's your advice on a human level to people yeah about relationships or whatever gosh so many things to say that I've learnt I mean I learned from me I mean you can go for it all no I'm just saying I mean you know the idea is to


just saying I mean you know the idea is to try and be kind and to be nice to each other of course and you know read about Jesus and yeah seriously I mean he is a wonderful outlook to life but I mean there's so many things I mean I'd want to sound like like I'm preaching but just be a nice person I mean that's so easy to say no but yeah just make sure you sleep well at night God you know yeah try if you keep yourself guilt-free okay I'll tell you what was slightly deeper if you like she shakes me all you have to ever read release Shakespeare and Milton so Shakespeare in in Hamlet Polonius is speech where he tells his son who is leaving and going somewhere gives him some advice he is read Polonius his speech to his son and just follow that the last few lines of it are and above all else to thine own self be true so be true to yourself for then as sure as night follows day you cannot


for then as sure as night follows day you cannot be forced to anyone else beautification that I think is good advice from father diesel several Egon thank you so much man learned a lot from you and a lot from this particular conversation if you could ask everyone to subscribe to Bo biceps it will make my day hi this is Sara Lee Han and please subscribe to bear biceps yeah thank you safe all right


some people are just extremely easy to speak with abhishek bachchan is one of the best conversationalists i've had on the runway show despite being at that level of fame spoke about his relationships with his family his experiences with his dad his learnings from his dad his learnings from life in general his own career outside of films as well he spoke about what he loved about his acting career but he's also spoken about his startup investments something that a lot of people don't know about his recent release the big bull was critically acclaimed abhishek bachchan's performance was loved by the masses and this is abhishek bachchan like you've never seen before i feel like he exposed pieces of himself that he's not exposed on the internet or in the media world and i'm glad he did that on the ranvi show it was a pleasure speaking to this man and i'm going to let you guys enjoy amshay bachchan and we show from here on mr abhishek bachchan welcome to the


from here on mr abhishek bachchan welcome to the ranveer show thank you man thank you thank you for having me i'm excited what do you think is the adjective that people most associate with you right now how do people describe abhishek bachchan how do you think people describe abhishek butcher i i don't know if i want them to describe me but um i don't know you go for a man whatever you want i'm an actor i'll be whatever you want i i think i think uh i mean the the word i'm hearing flying around which i don't entirely agree with the word i'm hearing is underrated as an actor like people really respect you as an actor but then they think that oh no you know more people there should be more respect on this guy's name so i think i think it's a cool place to be considering that you're a sports fan that's what a lot of athletes want um well i'm humbled thank you uh the fact that they just think about me is


uh the fact that they just think about me is i think good enough but no i don't believe in these things as underrated or i think um i mean they're just being sweet uh if you're really that good then they'll recognize you for what you are and that's it your movies do as well as you can do and uh we should take a bit more responsibility for our work and and that's it so if they think i'm underrated i'm humbled i don't believe it i think uh god has been very kind the audiences have been kinder they've given me what's due to me and that's it so uh here's a cute story the first time i ever saw you in person in my life was when i was like i think six or seven years old and you were going to jaisalmer to shoot mumbai ayamira dost i think i believe you were on the same flight as me oh wow you were really nice man that's what i remember about you you were like my first uh you


remember about you you were like my first uh you know so-called celebrity uh real life interaction oh really oh wow cool so you you said you set the tone for a nine year old uh but i'll tell you what i feel like your vibe has changed a lot in a good way uh you're great back then i was you're a good guy i feel like you're a different dude right now so right from the time i saw you and i'm gonna be straight up with you man like uh you know after i saw you i wanted to go see dhoom there were whispers of dhoom coming out i feel like doom came out in 2004 that was a turning point for you and i really i really followed you back then when you had bluff master and you had you know those other you had like this thing of really cool movies i'm gonna ask you straight up i'm an entrepreneur what's that one movie that people come and tell you you know come and thank you for what do you think


know come and thank you for what do you think is that one movie people come and thank you for well the one movie which i get a lot of is guru i made a movie called guru which came out in 2007 directed by mani ratnam with my wife and myself and uh so that's the one move people come up a lot and say that was very inspirational and they like to watch it so yeah how do you look back at that face that bluff master dhoom guru face man it was fantastic um you know doom came out in august 2004 um then the next year i had buntier bubbly sarkar right they all came back to back all these films guru yeah um so it was it was great fun man i think you know at that point of time you're young you're just enjoying doing your work and you're getting great work to do you're working with great people so i really enjoyed that face but you know i've enjoyed every phase of my career uh from


i've enjoyed every phase of my career uh from the start i think the first couple of years was a very steep learning curve for me um you know i having i was educated abroad um in switzerland and then the united states and my training i've done predominantly in english uh so coming back you know working in the film industry first and then trying to become an actor becoming actors a very different sensibility for me so i had to really adjust to that and i think the first couple of years it was a big learning curve for me and then i just started enjoying it a lot more and um yeah i'm having a blast i've always enjoyed my work i've enjoyed making films um and um i've been very lucky i mean it's been wow 21 years now and i think any actors been around for 21 years has been very very lucky just asking you this in a brotherly way but why do you why do you take breaks from films like you know because people you you


breaks from films like you know because people you you do have sort of like a cult following so people want to see more of you and that's probably why i feel that underrated word keeps getting thrown up when they're speaking about you so why do you why do you go away for some time and i get it i get it as a guy i kind of get it like on a personal level but i'd like to hear it from you well you know the only time i actually took a break from my work was um in 2016 um after house full um three came out i took a break for about two years but that was just i needed to just recalibrate and reevaluate what i was doing how i was doing uh i wanted to set up some other businesses that i'd invested in but more than just just as an actor i just felt i needed that one key up my ass basically uh that's that's that's the no holds part version of it you know i needed that one um reboot i


it you know i needed that one um reboot i needed um to just just wake up again i think i was getting i was i was stuck in a rut where i was very conveniently and easily doing what i was doing earning some great money and i wasn't i mean i just felt that everything was coming a bit too easy i needed to to just recalibrate and that's what i did i took a break for two years and then i made manmarzia and since i shot for monmouth yeah i've actually been shooting since 2018 back to back uh barring a couple of months last year due to the lockdown and uh the films have just taken that much time because as soon as manmarzia finished i started shooting ludo i finished ludo i went on to a web show that day called brief i finished breathe and then i made big bull finished big bull went on to bob besos finished bobby swaz i'm now in in lucknow right now i'm talking to you from not know where


now i'm talking to you from not know where i'm shooting my next room this week um i finished the screen another 10 days and i go straight back to breathe it's next season and then back to back so you know it takes time uh i think the lockdown also kind of delayed a few projects and um so yeah and i'm just really happy with the work i'm doing i'm happy i'm in good space and i'm and i'm enjoying my work and uh you know i think i think you're very blessed and lucky as an actor if you get to do man marzia breathe ludo big bull bob resource industry back to back yeah you know that's that's that's a lot of different work and it's it's good fun it's a great time to be an actor yeah man and people are taking notice of this you know i want to call this a 2.0 version of what you're doing uh the second innings so people are taking notice but what i hear from you is that in that


but what i hear from you is that in that phase where you actually took that hiatus you were in search for an evolution you know you were you're probably in search for this 2.0 version of yourself so uh how old were you like in 2016 in 2016 i turned 40. okay so here's my question to you do you think that something happens to a man's mind at 40 and the second question is uh was it anything to do with mental health or existentialism like were you going within and asking questions um no it wasn't about mental health um it was just i think i'd reached a stage where i recognized that i was being lazy with my work you know i was doing huge films they were becoming huge hundred crore 200 crore successes i was making truckloads of money by the grace of god but i think somewhere as an artist you're just kind of going through the motions of it you know it was easy money the responsibility of those films wasn't on me it was on


of those films wasn't on me it was on somebody else and i was very happy to stand in the background and that was it and and there came a point of time where i said no this is not what i came here to do you know as an artist you want to be challenged you want to have those sleepless nights you want to you want to take responsibility for your work you want that pressure you want those jitters um as i'm sure any professional would want you know you have to be ambitious and maybe somewhere that kind of emotion was lacking because i was just very comfortable hmm and um i just said no i've got to change that and um and that's what i did so yeah there was a lot of um contemplation on my part in those two years you know i think you need to to to really delve deep within and find that spark again and reignite that entire engine and go from it you know and uh that's i'd like to believe that's what i did


i'd like to believe that's what i did i mean you know dude i feel in a man's life there's like three phases i mean at least i'm speaking about pre-50 okay i don't know beyond 50 but because we've done the podcast primarily with people who are under the age of 50 here's what i figured so one huge phase is when you're like going from 22 to 25. this isn't just men this is human beings okay men and women 22 to 25 is one evolution i feel when you have like a kid so like early or mid-30s is another and somewhere in your 40s you have a third like something happens which brings me back to what i asked you about turning 40 what's that like in here like what's that like i've always heard that once you turn 40 suddenly your life just starts falling into place and i have to say that's true because i think you finally realize that your priorities start mattering i think we've always all had priorities but


mattering i think we've always all had priorities but finally you realize that you know it's go time this is this is when you really got to make it count and um you start you you start following the and and adhering to those priorities and that's not going to happen before you're 40. okay regardless of what it is yes i agree uh once you have a kid it it kind of whips you into shape you know um because you're now responsible for this for this this new life um and and that that's an amazing moment you know i i've seen fathers um literally like their face change when when i've seen them holding their newborn child and i was no different um that and then when you turned 40 i think for me it was it was it was like a eureka moment you know you just suddenly like okay this is what i want to do this is what i'm not happy doing and i got to make the changes that i got to make also i think on some level um


got to make also i think on some level um which we tend to do a lot in india um i don't know why don't ask me why but i just feel somewhere we're very apologetic about our dreams and our ambitions you know um somewhere maybe it's part of our society or our culture where we're led to believe that being ambitious is not a cool thing i feel the younger generation is has has accepted that a lot better than people for my generation we were really at the cusp of that and i just i just feel that you know there's absolutely nothing wrong in wanting to achieve what you want to achieve even if it seems unreachable but to have the confidence the self-assurance yeah don't be arrogant about it but to have the self-assurance to go out and achieve your dreams i think it's so important and we're going to stop telling our kids primarily that you know no no just stay humble and you know no go out there you know dream big do what


no go out there you know dream big do what it takes to achieve what you have to achieve and believe in yourselves 100 we had a historian on the podcast last week where i addressed this exact concept that why is the older generation in india like people born in the 60s 70s 80s slightly less you know brash than the younger generation i feel the 90s born and 2000s born generation really wants big things for themselves they're not looking at american entrepreneurs or american success stories and saying wow that's crazy they think we can also do that yeah which is probably missing from the older generations and then i feel the 80s 90s and 2000 generations gradually shed that off so i see it changing i hear you but i do see it changing i'm sure you see that in your own daughter as well the thought process is different absolutely and i think that thought process is afforded to the younger generations standing on the shoulders of the previous generations i think you know


shoulders of the previous generations i think you know there's so many changes that happen post-independence to india that that today we get to think on equal terms to everything historically over the last 100 150 odd years somewhere india they've always been told to think that we are not only subservient but we are not as good as the rest of the world and that post-independence that mindset started changing slowly and i really feel that today we've come up that full circle where today's generation is on par with the world we have access to the world which previously we didn't you know in the early 90s when satellite television first came in is the first time india was opened up to to what the world was watching and then came the internet and now suddenly there's absolutely nothing different about or you know you're as informed you're as educated you're as um people yeah capable and clued in with what's going on so the west in no way is superior you know and i think because of the


is superior you know and i think because of the access and the way the countries opened up the economy everything today it's actually you know you go out there with great pride and today i don't see like a younger generation thinking that anybody in the west or in the far east is any better than us we're as good if not better and i love that yeah um you know that historian who we had on said that this was like a tool that imperialists use to control their colonies where they tell every other cause no your don't think big we will always be above you they put it in our textbooks it's called social engineering where you change like a whole society's work absolutely um i really want to highlight one part of my life okay i was in the ninth grade and this was like a big turning point for me eighth or ninth grade couldn't i didn't really dream big for myself like i didn't really think about my career that's when i happened to see guru you have


when i happened to see guru you have no idea what kind of an impact that movie had on me plus i went to the reliance school i went to dais and my daughter was there best school in the world made me who i am given me everything in terms of a mindset given me confidence giving me the ability to dream big because i think the main purpose of neeta and many man starting that school was to give that dhruva money mindset to all the leaders of tomorrow um plus i saw guru and it kind of stayed in my head and i started thinking about business as a possible career i said that that's a cool life you know that's what i want i went back to guru i think last year on the lockdown you know when all of us were having cabin fever by like may or june and you're just like having these bad thoughts because of fatigue or because of just being locked up i saw guru and the early portions of that movie really made me cry


the early portions of that movie really made me cry okay like i mean i was like tearing up because it's a lot of the same i've gone through as a young entrepreneur now where your family's telling you not to do something uh society's telling you something the existing players are telling you that your ideas are and then you're like no you know uh you there's a dialogue you have in that movie that says something like that and it's also the way you acted you know the way i just i feel like yeah i mean i i love you as an actor but that movie stands out the question i have for you yeah the question i have for you is um i don't think people know that you have a business side to you i mean people have an idea that you're into business but did guru kind of have any role in your life personally because i know that every piece you do as an actor stays with you changes you a little bit specifically about that movie what impact did it have on


specifically about that movie what impact did it have on your life mind heart soul you know um there's a very funny thing which happens i think most of the time i mean i i think with actors but i mean i i believe if if i ever could go back and tell my younger self something about my work would be to pay more attention um you know if we knew we were making history and i don't mean history like oh we've done something great it's just something that's being logged in history you would have paid more attention um when we were making guru it was just i mean it was my second film with money we had finished yuva it was the chance to collaborate with him uh there was aishwarya maddie vidya virtundagi great cast we were just so busy just having fun making movies um i don't think apart from money any of us had even thought of the impact that film was gonna have you know i mean sometimes like like some of the movies that you've mentioned


sometimes like like some of the movies that you've mentioned uh since the start i mean literally like like bluff master wasn't even gonna happen you know and um the casting was totally different and suddenly a date window of mine opened up and i called my friend rohan and i said you know dude this windows open up he said okay let's pull it up we put a cast together we just shot a film and like banged it out in like 45 to 50 days in mumbai in the monsoons and that was it you know and to come back today and today i mean it's been now what 15 16 years since it came out people still come and say oh we love the film or be it good it's fantastic and you just wish that you know i wish i was that much more aware of what was happening but possibly that is also why you know we didn't take it that seriously we weren't trying to be very pseudo intellectual about the whole thing you were just trying to do a film


whole thing you were just trying to do a film and make a film that is as entertaining but when when when we made guru i think anybody expected the kind of reaction we'd still be getting and um i've i've i've actually been interested in in business from way before that um i've always wanted to do something actively as an investor pretty much since i came out of college and and um yeah so i i think it'd be unfair of me to admit or say that guru changed that mindset for me um i think the one thing guru really did for me personally is at that point of time i was i think what 28 29 when i made the film to play that role and today people ask me that oh you know you are 28 29 you put on like 20 kilos you played a character was in his late 60s early 70s none of your colleagues were doing it at that point in time you did it back then physical transformation is something actors are starting to do now all of that


something actors are starting to do now all of that and and i really had never thought about it in that way for me it was just about being true to the character and what money ratnam wanted me to do and uh i think the one thing guru taught me is to have strengthened my convictions you know if you believe in something and i was convinced that what we were doing in guru was correct be putting on the weight aging the character playing an older character you know um there's certain there's certain things that actors sadly have in their head especially in our field industry that you know these are the dues and these are definitely the don'ts and i think we kind of broke that thought process in guru but i was completely convinced it never occurred to me that we were doing something which could be a risk etc etc because i really believed in what we were doing so the one thing guru taught me is just have you know strength in your conviction and it'll all go


know strength in your conviction and it'll all go right and that's what it taught me in in business as well i mean be it in sports you know i i own two sports teams and i did it at a time where sports apart from the ipl people like are you crazy nobody watches any other sport in india apart from cricket and that could have been true but there was just this one belief and passion to do what you had to do and i followed that and that's always paid off for me in the initial years of business um i feel personally as as an entrepreneur or as an investor as a businessman if there isn't passion then why are you doing it for me it's very important to have a personal emotional connect with what i'm doing be it films or be a business so for example in my investments in sports which have been substantial i really believed in it and because of that passion and that belief it never came across as a risk it was something i


never came across as a risk it was something i genuinely wanted to do and i had to make it work and i worked really hard on it and i worked in it because i believed in it not because i was invested in it and i think that's that's an important distinction to have as an entrepreneur so i did that but what i've realized is is there's that slight honeymoon period where your passion and your interest takes your business so far after which you have to have a very strong business plan because you need to sustain it if you don't have that you're gonna find i mean like i genuinely feel today i admit it openly i still don't act upon it entirely but i really feel in my sporting teams i'm actually coming in the way of those teams becoming even bigger and better because i approach sports in a particular way and business in a different way and those two ideologies always clash because i'm fiercely loyal as a person i'm very duty-bound


loyal as a person i'm very duty-bound um and i stand for all those qualities of loyalty duty honor and sometimes when you you're putting a championship team together those are things which you have to park on the side you have to be very cold you have to be very shrewd into what's best for the team for example you know who do you drop who do you sign i find that if i hate making that decision i don't like to cut anybody for my teams um i've always believed in the triumph of human spirit so if there's a player who's been fantastic and a legend for my team in the past and the last season wasn't that good i still want to bank on that player and give them a chance i've been given a second chance in life and i know what it meant and i did my best not to throw that second chance away so i hope that you know they'll be able to do that but there are times when it just might not be possible


there are times when it just might not be possible so as a team owner or as a business owner you have to take those harsh cold decisions keeping the macro view in mind um and and i feel maybe somewhere that comes in the way for me so now i have to put down a vision statement i have to create my roadmap and give it to the professionals to run the team that are qualified to do it i've set up the foundation and now i need to you know pass over i find that very difficult to try but you know i i do feel that these are two stages of of investing which are important at least to me you know i know a lot of investors who just invest because it's a sound investment for me it's not just about the finances it's about you know does it ever connect with me yeah um i hear you man uh you speak about business so passionately i think you speak about it as passionately as you do about films why don't you talk a little bit


do about films why don't you talk a little bit about your investments like where have you invested and everyone knows about your sports investments but do you do stuff outside of that as well yes i mean i i i invest a bit in the stock market um not majorly but a little bit here and there i think everybody does i i'm i'm i'm not a very high risk taker when it comes to stocks i like to diversify my portfolio and i would say i'm a moderate investor in that sense my risk portion isn't that high um but i i enjoy investing in in in startups i think that just comes that's just i think a legacy of of of of my sports you know it's about you know um it's it's about believing in that one vision and that one dream helping somebody along and doing it i i'm a big tech guy i really enjoy tech so i i like investing in tech it intrigues me and it's amazing for me also it's just amazing


it's amazing for me also it's just amazing because when you if you enter that world of startups you just see how advanced the world is thinking and that's just amazing it blows me away but then again it's it's it's very easy to get to to get you know sucked into that world and uh you still then have to make those business decisions of where am i going to put my money because everybody gives a great pitch right you know and um we all know the success ratios in startups i mean the they're possibly worse than what they are in our food industry so so um so you gotta you gotta be careful you gotta you gotta you know understand the landscape and and go from there beautiful i mean while everybody does give a good pitch so i've i've recently started working as an investor with a few startups my formula is great pitch cool i need to trust in the people like the team it's kind of like sports that you say okay i like these people i


sports that you say okay i like these people i like this energy here uh your own gut feeling like what does your intuition say yeah and probably a track record you know it's always good to have a sunil on the team so some that's probably the formula for me uh but you spoke about the stock market we got to talk about the big bull is that why you took up that movie like and you're getting like you know beautiful reviews everyone's like yo this guy acted acted well killed it i'm i'm you know very honestly i i i shy away from all this i find it very good you know how to respond to stuff like this because on some level you're like okay i'm an actor that's my job i did my job you know and i'm meant to do a good job you know at least that's what's expected of you um that's why somebody would cast you in a film so i i find it very weird to react to all this but it's you know it's it's


to all this but it's you know it's it's very overwhelming it's very overwhelming i mean because it released directly on digital we don't have like the box office metric to tell us about how the film is doing so we can just base it on the kind of comments that we get and just to see so many people appreciating your work is it's so reassuring you know and then it becomes overwhelming when it carries on i mean it's been now i think almost four days and still like all my social media feeds are like flooded and people just appreciating it yes there are a few people that that will have their criticisms and that's good you know that's the way you grow um so so i'm i'm just overwhelmed with the positivity that they've had with my with my performance and i thank them but um i i'd love to give you a really cool answer for your question but there isn't the the the truth is my dear friend elder brother and neighbor ajay called me like


friend elder brother and neighbor ajay called me like two two and a half years ago and said i've heard the script i want to produce it and i want you to hear it and that was it i mean i'd already said yes right there i i can never say no to aj is is very very dear to me somebody have immense love and respect for and uh i know he's not going to pick up the phone and ask me to do a film if he doesn't think it's worth my while so even before hearing the script um i said yes to the film so i just said aj look it's your film you know i'm gonna do it so let's get on with it he said no no you hear it don't don't just take a decision like that so i'd already decided but then he sent cookie the director and he narrated the story to me and i just thought it was such a wonderful character i don't know many actors would probably say no to a to a film like this


probably say no to a to a film like this you know to have a character that goes through such a wonderful story of is i i enjoy them i i like this whole racks too which is kind of trope um you know i like the whole underdog coming out and winning and i like that so i enjoyed it lovely um okay i'm gonna make it a little more intense okay i'm gonna dial up the intensity of this podcast uh and i always wait till a certain point in the podcast where i intuitively know that okay do it now i've been dying to ask you this all my life since i studied you your dad um you know your parents had a little bit of a tough phase in the late 90s where dad spoken about it pretty openly and then your dad also went into a second innings in life starting from kbc and you know i feel like your greatest mentor in life are usually your parents like i mean that's because i mean their earliest


like i mean that's because i mean their earliest mentors the things they say to you when you're a child really stay with you so what was your observation of whatever was happening back then there was financial trouble there was uh difficulties uh and you know you were making your debut right after that so what was going on in your head as an observer well i had front row seats right you know um well truth be told uh i left university i was studying in boston university and um i was doing um i declared my major as liberal arts and then i majored in performing arts and i left my education because my father was going through this really rough time financially he had started a business called ubcl and i just felt i don't think i was qualified to help in any which way but i just felt as a son i needed to be around my father you know and help in whatever way so i left my college i came back and i started helping him in his company i i


and i started helping him in his company i i started as a production boy so i actually literally i mean i was a glorified tea maker basically wow and that's where i first met ajay devgan actually in the sense i knew him as a kid because both our fathers used to work together and we grew up in the same neighborhood but that was the first time i got to really spend quality time with him because i was i was a production boy on the film that he was acting called major and he really took me under his wing and he was so supportive and i mean that film got made because because of his cooperation and i'll always be thankful to him for that and he taught me pretty much everything there is to know about the film industry at the same time after i finished that i you know i ate a bit did production then i started trying to become an actor and um i just remember there was one one late night early morning i was in my room i just gone


early morning i was in my room i just gone to sleep and and my father you know called me on the intercom and he said hey uh are you awake i said well i am now and um he said will you come up to my study and i went up to a study and you could make out that he'd obviously not slept he'd been up all night just sitting in a study and he said you know things aren't working out my movies aren't working out this business is not working out nothing is working out and um i've always believed that when everything is going wrong go back to basics he said i'm an actor i got to go back to acting and i'm not happy with the way i'm looking i'm not happy with the way i'm feeling i'm going to do something about it and he said you know what i've decided we're going to make this work and you and i are going to have to work very hard um i hate to say this to you because you know


i hate to say this to you because you know you're going to be making your foray into the films but we're going to fight and let's make this happen and that's the kind of relationship my father and i shared were best friends and uh i said okay um i went back to bed he got he had a shower and left for the gym at like 5 30 in the morning um and from there he came back from the gym showered and walked across to mr estopra's house and told ya sean called that look i don't have a job i don't nobody's giving me work anymore my movies aren't working and i've come to ask you to please give me a film to work in and yes uncle that evening he said okay i don't know how can you say that you're my friend is that i'll work something out and that evening he sent aditya over to him and they offered him which from a film perspective turned things around for him and at that same


perspective turned things around for him and at that same time is when kbc was happening so yeah i had front row seats but you know i've always said this publicly my my parents never brought me up to be a quitter um it was do or die you know i firmly believe in life don't ever have a backup if you have that one backup you're always going to rely and know that at the back your head that i've got that backup so if this doesn't work i have that option and we all think like that we're all brought up like that especially in indian households you don't have that one safety net but um you seen dark knight rises yeah of course so you remember that one time when he's trying to break out of the prison and the final time he does it without the rope and he said what were they saying and they were just saying you know there is no rope remember that um that's the way you're gonna lead your life man if you if


you're gonna lead your life man if you if if you're gonna you're gonna jump in both feet into the deep end and figure out how to swim because the minute you know that there is that one option you're always going to take that option when it gets really tough no matter how much will power you have how determined you are it's just human instinct when you don't have that safety net you're just gonna have to make it work and that's the way i've always approached my work i've never given up despite any roadblocks or obstacles or setbacks and that's it man um you know like like rocky says it's not about how hard you hit it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward that's how winning is done that is how winning is done man adversity builds the character of a human man uh that's what i will highlight uh and you know it's all these dark phases that you're actually remembered for these dark stories that you get to speak


for these dark stories that you get to speak about that you get to attribute your character to um if i had to highlight just three things you've learned from your dad amitabh bachchan in your whole life what would those three things be like life lessons that our sons learned from his father discipline duty and wisdom hmm i have a a 90 year old granddad at home change yeah i mean beautiful man taught me a lot in life watched a lot of wrestling together and you know we went through that phase as well but he's he's at home he's still conscious he's just really old honestly like you know he's very old his body is like giving away i'm sure you're seeing that around you as well like you know you see your relatives get older i'm seeing that with my mom and my dad as well you know the mindsets are changing uh what are you noticing about your parents where now you're on your 40s and that's probably something else that happens in your 40s where


probably something else that happens in your 40s where you're like oh maybe now i'm gradually becoming the parent you know life's roles change up are you have you thought of this concept at all well my father's benjamin button so you know he works as much as i do and i just his zest for life and to work is just amazing and even my mom dude she's 73 and she's in parliament and she's going for it and she's passionate about what she does i think it's amazing i think it's very important to stay mentally active you know there was a phase i have to admit um you know when i i got married and you know eshwari came into our lives and she brought so much happiness and peace and then she gave she gave birth to our daughter and that that just you know i mean amazing and i remember turning to my dad and saying okay now you know you need to chill out you know take it easy or make the one art film but


take it easy or make the one art film but enjoy you know this phase of your life play with your granddaughter this that and take it easy he didn't obviously evidently and i realized that with my father the day he stops working you know he's going to start falling in and he has several medical issues but it's just his willpower and his love and desire for doing what he does that i think just keeps him going and i really feel it's such a great life lesson that even my dad is going to be 79 this year my mom just turned 73 yesterday and um they're still so active and i think it's important to be mentally active and physically active and like i said they're you know god give them the longest life i haven't my nani um is my only living grandparent right now she's 92. and she's unbelievably by the grace of god touch with so active you know stole inclu you speak to her all the time she's out she's you know she lives


the time she's out she's you know she lives in bhopal and it's so i really feel that's amazing so with my parents yes you do start growing up and saying okay i've got to start taking care of them and you have those days when you when you see them aging um but i really i'm so blessed that both my parents are healthy they're active and i think that's very important lovely ah and i'm sure your wife is a support system for you through this whole journey man oh unbelievable she's she's unbelievable you know she's she's really my anchor no no one really knows you know your love story so maybe if you could take us through that really quick and then how the love story has panned out in the last 10 years because people don't know these things about you and i'm shamelessly going to ask you about your personal life here well i i've always been a bit reticent to discuss it but um what was really nice uh you know with eshwarya and


was really nice uh you know with eshwarya and me is we've always been friends you know from before i became an actor i first met her actually when i was a production boy and i was there was a film my father was making called and i i had gone as uh for the location recce in switzerland because the company felt because i'd grown up in switzerland in boarding school that i would be able to take them to nice location so i was sent there to find locations and stuff and um i'd been there for a couple of days and obviously you know all alone and that's when a dear childhood friend of mine bobby the old was shooting his first film over there and he's and he got to know i was there and he said hey why don't you come over dinner and um that's you know the first time when they were shootings when i met eshwarya and uh so obviously you know you meet socially and then uh very early in my career the the second film i ever shot


in my career the the second film i ever shot started shooting for was a movie called dayaksha primkay in which she was cast as well and we did several films as as co-stars and we'd always been friends and i mean once you start working obviously you form a a better bond and we were always friendly we always loved talking to each other were you crushing on her just a little bit throughout this video come on come on go on go on and and um we were always friends and she i always found a very contrary to this whole image that she has i found it to be so normal and so grounded and so cool and she was very you know um we have this image that she's you know this but she was she was just so normal so warm and we all we just hit it off immediately we were always good friends you know we stayed in touch whatever and i think that friendship just grew into love and and then you know it took it from there so i think the


know it took it from there so i think the foundation of a relationship has been friendship and we've maintained that throughout you know um i think brutal honesty coupled with with unconditional love and support i think that um are some of the most important pillars of a healthy marriage plus communication you know she uh she she she does the heavy lifting in in in the relationship you know um uh she's she's just amazing i'm i'm so blessed to have her and you know um i'm so thankful that that that she you know that she's in part of my life and she's my partner and she truly is that partner for me you know she's my anchor she she grounds me she's my go-to person when i'm when i'm you know conflicted about something she just sorts out a lot of stuff yeah uh and you know the i mean the outside perspective on dating or marrying someone like aishwarya rai for a lot of brothers is yo really i'm getting to date or marry a rai


really i'm getting to date or marry a rai or a girl like that so you know when you were when you weren't married and when you got to know that your marriage is a possibility what was going on in your head because a lot of guys uh aren't able to wrap their head around i mean that's happened to me as well you know when you're dating someone who's like that you're just like yo how do i even process this or take us through your confidence game you know that's the alternative question if you don't want to take us through i don't know you know like i said i think you could feel that if that the other person makes you feel like that but she's i mean if you ever get the opportunity to meet her or speak to you you'll be completely disarmed by her simplicity and she's very real and very normal so you never you know she never puts out that vibe so you never end up thinking like that you know but it's it's also i this


that you know but it's it's also i this is just my hunch and that's what worked for you even in the mid 2000s i'm gonna say it there was a lot of actors using steroids trying to get like six-pack ripped and you had your own image you were you know away from the pack but what worked for you was your vibe your confidence used to come out on screen i'm so sure that's had a role to play in your love story as well so don't don't deny that i'll have to ask her man do you feel so do you feel so i never really thought about it to be honest i never really thought about it but uh i'll ask her i mean this is coming from people who view your films that's that's honestly what works for you it's it's the way you like you can see the confidence when you dance and you're very chill with yourself which is also why i think you handle twitter trolls and all that really well when other people are going like ah


that really well when other people are going like ah we're living in the world of haters you're just like slyly giving it back so it's pretty cool you know also i think we all we tend to take ourselves a bit too seriously uh you gotta learn to laugh at yourself you gotta have some fun some of those twitter guys are really funny man some of them are really funny and some of them are really unfunny who think they're really funny so once in a while it's nice to put them in their place yeah you know um and like i've said this before you know if you think you can take pot shots at me why do you think i can't take pot shots back you know um and it's fine but it's all done in jest it's all for fun you can't you can't get so carried away with it and like i said i think i think i think celebrities also we've become far too sensitive about everything we just got to learn to chill out and


everything we just got to learn to chill out and have a bit of fun yeah social media isn't reality you know uh it isn't whether you like it or not i mean in the context of my profession i can tell you know hundreds of people to go watch x film that doesn't mean they go watch it there's no correlation between box office and and social media so yeah you just have to have fun with it man it's it's a platform for communication so communicate yeah i hear you but i also kind of feel that's your entrepreneur speaking up because you have something to do outside of the world of glamour and media and i feel that often when you're just doing one thing in your career you get kind of locked into it completely so i always feel like don't get me wrong when when i first joined twitter in like 2009 the first couple of years you know one comment can set you off um let me admit we're all human you know we try and tide over the negative stuff


you know we try and tide over the negative stuff but it hurts you know because it's somebody's opinion and and you're in in in a sense you're a public servant you work for the audience and even one person not liking your work i feel you have to take cognizance off you have to be aware because that's how you're going to change and but after upon a time you you you you develop your height you know you develop the thick skin the first two years i mean the smallest thing and i have to get like wow you know really riled up but i think with time you also just learned to say okay don't take that seriously got it i gotta bring you back to my favorite place in the world and your favorite place in the world twitter that's where we'll be taking some fan questions all right let's do it mr abhishek butcher i hope you're ready for some intense quick twitter verse questions okay cmd7 asks what was your favorite character to play in a serious movie


was your favorite character to play in a serious movie but i'll let you lose and say in any movie what is your favorite all-time character to play the one i'm playing right now witches i'm playing chaudhary gangaram in my movie this week but i'll tell you why i say that and i said somebody asked me this you know i when um when i just come back from college and i was and i was working with my dad i i was i had the pleasure of spending an afternoon with charuk um at my friend uday's house over lunch and i remember asking him i mean you know young wannabe actor and i said uh shah you know and and he's a wonderful wonderful guy lovely and and i said char what's your which has been like which is your dream role you know and uh he says the one i'm doing right now and he said make sure that's always your dream role and your favorite character because if it's not then you're never going to give it 100


not then you're never going to give it 100 am i allowed to ask you that from all your past characters which one's the closest to your heart they're all close i mean obviously refugee will always be special because it's my first um dome will um will always be special because it was considered my first success but they're all closed because i've learned so much from them especially the ones that didn't work you know um i i don't really not i don't really believe in the word failure in that sense you know failure is is up to the person that's doing it whether you know um you read all these inspirational quotes and uh you know i i really honestly believe that you it's in your hand whether you decide something is a failure or not because if you can take something positive out of it then it's a lesson it's a learning you've not that doesn't become a failure so if something doesn't go according to plan make sure to turn them positive by at least learning from it so


turn them positive by at least learning from it so i've learned from all of them so they're all very very close to me yeah we had ronnie scrubala on the show and the one quote of his that stayed with me was failure is a comma it's not a full stop and that's what we have he says that very often yeah absolutely especially before failure happens your perception of it is my life is going to end right there but actually it's about taking the hit and like going forward like rocky so um okay there's a lot of rude questions here uh but i'm gonna give you one of those rude questions nishi gupta asks how does abhishek deal with the criticism phase because of the fact that he's the son of amitabh bachchan and i'm sure this is a repeated thing you've had throughout your career where people might compare you to your dad and i know that you don't compare yourself to your dad because he's a legend but on a personal level i'm sure that


a legend but on a personal level i'm sure that you had a journey to get to that point of understanding that answer for yourself so when people know stuff the way i look at it man you're comparing me to the best if you're comparing me to the best means i'm obviously worth something to be compared to the best the fact that you think be worthy enough to take my name in the same sentence as his goes to show that obviously i'm doing something right so that's the way i look at it um [Music] okay yashwatwani asks a question about your daughter how does abhishek deal with aradia when she wants to learn something like swimming badminton or do you ever pressurize her to learn something like i mean just generally the question is about fatherhood what's your approach to fatherhood you know our approach to parenthood is as long as your child is happy and healthy you should be fine let's not put pressure on them to do stuff that we want them to do and


to do stuff that we want them to do and like i said in in our relationship eshwarya is the one who does the heavy lifting so you know she's an amazing mother and um [Music] the amount of dedication and selflessness that she that she has towards her daughter is unbelievable you know she takes such good care of her and she allows me to go out and make my movies and uh you know but we've always said that as long as that is happy and healthy we're happy so we're never going to pressurize it to do anything it's what she wants to do and we'll always support beautiful man okay um himacha hamesha asks um being known for several years what's been a major breakdown moment i think she means after you became famous like after you began your film career and how did you combat that after you began your career was there any kind of intense breakdown moment several i mean every time your film doesn't do well you get a bad review or a nasty comment


well you get a bad review or a nasty comment it affects you i told you we're human beings um but yeah i think the initial phase of my career there was a point of time when i went to my dad and i said look i think i made a mistake because no matter what i'm doing is just not working i've tried everything you know worked with newcomers worked with established directors and everything and none of my films are working i think i made a mistake and he turned to me and he said firstly i never brought you up to be a quitter secondly i'm telling you as an actor that you are improving with every film so just work sign whatever it is you know whether you're in the you know if you're the main lead if you're a supporting class whatever just work keep working on your craft and you're improving um so yeah there were times when you know you have to understand when we if we tank we tank publicly and that takes a lot of


tank we tank publicly and that takes a lot of guts to do it's not easy man uh this is a very competitive industry this is a very difficult industry it's an industry which which demands blood sweat and tears and you have to you know the price for your art is immense but that's that's what's due and that's what you have to pay and if you're not prepared to do that then you're not going to succeed so um you know you have a lot of those moments where you're really down on your confidence and life really beats you up but then in comes rocky and you're all set again man i don't think a lot of people know this side of you and that's totally your sports fan side coming out there's so many sports parallels so i appreciate you putting it out on the show just a few more questions on this segment um interesting questions this is sort of related to big bull uh kevlar bhajpaya asks owing to the arrival of web series and online content


owing to the arrival of web series and online content in every possible medium has a process of making choices changed and if yes what additional factors do you have to incorporate in your own head so i think the basic question is uh that because of the online space how has that changed your career as an actor well um your decision making process for television uh digital streaming sites and big films like big screen films has to be very different because in a sense they're three very different mediums uh i understand why that can be confused and the slides can blur but uh having done a web series last year uh having had two films released on ott this year and i mean december and this year uh having done movies all my life they're very they're written very differently so i think for like the ott space your decision making has to be different for for a theatrical release your decision has to be different so your approach is going to have to differ but i think digital has has just opened the floodgates for


think digital has has just opened the floodgates for such wonderful talent to come in because first of all it's just increased the demand for actors and directors and writers and technicians um and what it does also is it's not just india centric if no more anymore so what i mean by that is our cinema our usp is our indian-ness you know we cater to the indian sensibility and that's what i love about indian cinema you know everything about it the melodrama the pomp the pageantry i've always said indian films are like indian thales there's a little bit of everything and that's just what makes us so unique and so awesome that's never going to change but on digital you're now catering to a world audience where everybody's sensibilities are different everybody's culture is different everybody's society is different and you're gonna have to match a certain perceived international sensibility to certain things so that's the difference i feel in the digital and the theatrical release


i feel in the digital and the theatrical release so cinema is getting more globalized because of uh this digital space obviously man i mean put it this way i mean you know you go on to a netflix or an amazon or a hot star and you get to see tv shows web series limited series movies from world over at the same time you know uh your audience on a lot of the stuff that you put on ott is also seen by foreign people i mean i have a lot of friends from my high school days and they're all i mean i mean some of my friends are all they're all westerners you know and they all watch my work on streaming platforms and i get their feedback and i i see the difference in sensibilities they might not for example i mean if i may be a bit facetious they might not understand boy meets girl things going to high speed cut you're in switzerland singing a song we as indians love that stuff man you know and they're like wait what what how


man you know and they're like wait what what how did that happen so they might not understand that but they have to understand that our cinema is so different to what's happening in the world and that's why we're unique and that's why we're so wonderful you know the melodrama the revenge all of that you know i think our emotions our emotional quotient as it is is a lot higher so but on on ott you have to you have to cater to everybody okay um okay next question is from satyam pandey is a member of my team um has spiritualism or god played any role in your experience of life it's a heavy question but i i wouldn't mind hearing it from you no man um i don't know if i'm a spiritual person i don't know how religious i am i pray i love going to temples i have a very unique relationship with my god and it's a one-on-one equation but i don't i don't know if that has played it it's


i don't know if that has played it it's a very personal i think religion is a very personal thing okay um but for me my relationship with my parents has been far more sacred than anything else beautiful yeah they say you know there's not one single atheist in the world everyone has a god they just call it different things so you could like sports could be your god parents could be your god whatever it is so i think that was the real question behind this um you know man and the last questions from me because you're a motivated dude uh and and i'm deeply into sports just like yourself that's where i withdraw my motivation from you know when you see a story unfold in the sports world somewhere you take away from that recently i've been deep into the nba following it deeply for the last oh you see the lakers and what they did to the next this morning hell yeah so all of it right like you have your damien lillards of the world you have steph curry


lillards of the world you have steph curry story my first love in sports is basketball oh really yeah so i as far as i can remember the first sporting event i ever went to live was to the la forum which is where the lakers used to play when i was a small kid my father took me to a laker celtic game magic johnson so dude i'm talking about showtime lakers okay manchester green you know byron scott all these cooper all these guys rambus against larry bird kevin miguel danny all these guys wow i mean the biggest sporting rivalry of all time and and i was hooked when i when i was in boarding school i went to a british boarding school and i i mean i i hosted you couldn't play football but football was life you know being a british school but i was i used to play basketball i was captain of my basketball team and and it's been my first love and i've been like a laker fan was the first


i've been like a laker fan was the first like franchise i ever followed so so i'm a huge basketball buff man that's crazy and i'm i mean during you i'm sure you're following whatever is happening even recently you're in touch with the game computer and that that's one of my personal goals as well to buy an indian version of an nba franchise by the time i'm 40 years old so let's see at some point hopefully let's talk man let's talk for sure we all got india represented in the nba though so that's great a dear friend of mine is one of the owners of the sacramento kings he's a jew boy originally yeah and now obviously in the early 70s shifted to the bay area and is a big tech guy but him shaq are our park owners um he's the majority owner of the sacramento king so we have india represented yeah yeah and i feel that nba is just going to keep expanding into india i'm seeing it expand in


keep expanding into india i'm seeing it expand in urban centers but it's also kind of expanding in punjab kerala these places are picking up on nba people are following lebron people are following steph curry so it's great news for nba fans we're not a niche anymore um the question is if you had to quickly highlight five stories from sport that have added to your mindset what would those stories of those athletes be from all of the sports there's so many man and that's the wonderful thing about sport it just provides so much motivation and inspiration they're wonderful stories like i keep saying the triumph of the human spirit it just has that first of all the sporting spirit secondly is that never say die spirit you know until that final bell doesn't ring it's go you don't stop trying i mean uh there's such wonderful wonderful stories you know such great stories and great sporting moments there are hundreds of them that you can take so much inspiration from just go


that you can take so much inspiration from just go to youtube and youtube some of them and it's just it's unbelievable just five five athletes if you had to highlight you know who your favorite five athletes if you want i'll give you mine and then maybe to set you off on some tangents it's it's very tough to choose five but obviously as as an indian the first of anybody's is sachin tendulkar um unbelievable um another athlete i have unbelievable respect for not just because of what he did on the field but more for what he did off the field is yuvraj singh you know for the life that uv has had the way he's battled cancer come back still play um and i believe he was aware of his illness during the world cup final and to come out as a man of the tournament his fighting spirit is something else unbelievable you know um it's just unbelievable but then you have great athletes in india like leander pace i mean just look


in india like leander pace i mean just look at lee at the span of his career i mean he won a bronze in the atlanta olympics he's still playing professional tennis it's unbelievable i would i mean i'm willing to wait to this possibly one of the longest serving professional athletes in the world i know there's this one japanese professional footballer who's like 52 and he's still playing but just what lee has achieved has been fantastic and internationally there's so many i mean one of my favorite and one of my idols in my life is magic john thompson you know and i had the absolute pleasure to meet him in 2015 when i was actually invited to play in the nba also celebrity match and um i was the first indian to go out there and i remember i i had i had a slip disk and i took all these shots for painkillers because i had to do that i mean as a nba fan how can you not want to you know run out of


can you not want to you know run out of madison square garden and nothing topped that but meeting magic johnson and you know he's just been a player that i've just admired from ever since i was a kid and you know for him to to deal with his career and be just the best of what he was i mean just to be a point guard and be the size that he is is i mean i think an achievement in itself and then to go through being hiv positive you know to fight that battle publicly to come out and just be such a champion for the disease and for the cause and then and just being such a great business entrepreneur he's actually one of the main inspirations behind me wanting to become an entrepreneur was because i saw how wonderfully magic johnson did it and how he gave back to the community so there's just so many wonderful wonderful athletes out there that can give you so much inspiration every day dda drop by you know i i'm a


every day dda drop by you know i i'm a big follower of chelsea football club but what what what delia drogba did off the field as well i mean the man put a stop to a civil war you know and see in in in in his home country and you know it's just i i think the sony athletes that just provide not just inspiration by being the athletes that they are but also by being the human beings that they are i hear you i'm gonna quickly go over my five lebron james for business coley for mentality damien lillard for cutthroat attitude i'd probably say nadal for just being a nice guy but also having brutality inside him and you know i'd probably say jaspreet boomerang for just like recently i've been following him inside out just the way he goes about business so those are my five calm collected man he's unbelievable yeah and that's five out of 100 other sports people who vary to my mindset love your mindset man i think that


my mindset love your mindset man i think that this part of you wasn't out there uh god bless you dude i feel like you know the next 20 30 years you're gonna you're gonna write some stories that people aren't expecting so good luck with it thanks man i appreciate that for sure have fun take care stay safe and thank you for being thank you thank you thank you take care good luck you


before i let you slip into beer biceps ex garyvee what i want to highlight is this man's role in my own journey seeing what garyvee built out on social media i was inspired to take that next step for my own career okay i've become a content creator what else can i do okay i've achieved a little bit how can i take it one level higher okay i am ambitious how can i take the ambition many levels higher that's what i've learned from gary vaynerchuk it was an honor having him on the runway show a big announcement for me in 2021 is that i've become an investor for the first time on a company called ready set jet ready set jet create some of the best cosmetics products some of the best skin care products that i've come across i'm glad to be an investor and this concept of being an investor was placed in my mind by witnessing garyvee's journey thank you you're a big brother to me in the world of social media


big brother to me in the world of social media garyvee appreciate you being on the ranvir show and opening up in the way that you did for the listeners of this podcast i'm going to allow you to slip into garyvee ex beer biceps on the runway show from now on [Music] gary vaynerchuk how are you welcome to the runway show thank you so much my friend thanks for having me just before this recording i told you that you're my online guru in so many ways i don't want to call you an online guru because that word has a negative connotation nowadays uh but you you've taught me a lot and most specifically you've taught me about how to think about the near future so i think that's a cool theme for this conversation as well uh you're big on nfts you're big on anything futuristic man i'd like to ask you about the post-covered world what's going to happen in terms of business and then what's going to happen in terms of social


then what's going to happen in terms of social media first of all thank you so much it feels very nice and thank you for everybody who's listening um uh you know i'm not sure you know it's funny a lot of people when they think about me they think i'm very good at predicting things and what i think i'm very good at is processing information when it's happened and then having very good intuition and pattern recognition around historical human behavior and then mixing those in ingredients and cooking a meal with an observation and then having this almost emotional feeling about it that gives me i know what it feels like when i'm ready to switch from curiosity to conviction and then i start making content so you know i bought ethereum in 2016. that was curiosity that was hypothesis but it was not until 2021 that i started being very loud about nfts and the things that were being built on ethereum so i don't know um what will happen in a post-covered world because i don't


will happen in a post-covered world because i don't think we're there yet let's say and the world is on diff every country's on different timing but let's for fun say that everybody was out of it on december 1st of this year it would be february 15th when i think i would start making videos saying this is what's going to happen because i would need those 10 weeks of observing listening watching which i do so much of you know people they see the output they see my content the podcasts the vlogs but they don't see what's happening the 20 other hours a day when i am doing my research when i'm listening when i'm engaging so um but there's enough going on that i have some hypotheses you know one i i think people are underestimating how big of a change is upon us you know human behavior consumer behavior the world the way humans act is very affected by things like this and so there's things that we aren't even thinking about that will forever change but


aren't even thinking about that will forever change but uh for example for me the way i work out you know i i learned a lot what a little more sleep can do for my impact right and so you know i don't want to work out in the morning as much you know i'm stronger in the evening that's a big change for me that's just a change you know um people have reconnected with lost friends um reconnected or disconnected from current relationships because this exposed what it feels like so and then on the and then on the business side you know the way we travel you know i think um the the the way we interact during cold months when people get you know the flu or sick like those things change the the the books the podcasts the tv shows we watch the foods we consume they've all been changed to some degree slightly so i i think that the other thing is i believe big events like this expose people more so than they changed them so i believe the people that were


they changed them so i believe the people that were unhappy and are anxious and insecure you know ha have doubled down on that anxiety and i believe the people that are optimistic and are happier have become more content in simplicity and have become even more grounded and so those are some of the things i've been thinking about um i mean this is just an observation from india but we've kind of fast forwarded five years into the future here like content that wouldn't have worked right now has started to work because people's mindsets just got fast forwarded i also run a talent management agency where we work with a lot of teenage talent and they're way smarter than what i was when i was a teenager and that's a representation of the whole country and also the whole world because they grew up with social media so the mindsets are fully different my hunch is that with social media people will consume even smarter content which is why we see the rise of you or joe rogan or


see the rise of you or joe rogan or even our show like it got a 400 percent rise in downloads in terms of podcast podcasts weren't a thing in india say even a year and a half ago and we just saw this explosion we started doing regional language podcasts like hindi podcast and that's also starting to rise and we're kind of going into lockdown again in this country i feel like this will be really beneficial for the world of content people will want deeper richer content and my hunch is that because people consume more social media you exercise your brain muscle you exercise your information muscle therefore you want deeper richer [ __ ] that will actually benefit your life that's just my hunch you know to your point the amount of hours that the human being would spend on traveling from work and they were always listening to the radio in their car or reading the newspaper on the train or whatever it might be you know those hours got brought back in house and in-house a


hours got brought back in house and in-house a phone or a laptop had the benefit of picking up a lot of those hours so yeah i mean i think i think the question always becomes and i'm always curious about this which is you know what would have happened anyway and then on an individual basis anything could have happened everything would have been different if the world was open different people would have met different people for different reasons and people make the world go round but yes i i understand where your angle is coming from let's keep it moving yeah garyvee talk to me about nfts like for someone who doesn't know anything about it how would you introduce the subject and how would you want people to think about it going into the future the way i i had dinner last night uh with some friends and i said look there's only been two other times in my entire life i've felt like this once was when i saw the internet itself in 1995 and the second time was over a


in 1995 and the second time was over a course of a few months similar to this uh where it became very obvious to me that myspace and facebook and youtube and twitter were gonna change the world and this web 2.0 which later became social media was going to be the thing that's how i feel about um no question that's how i feel about nfts nft stands for non-fungible token a token um is something that you find on the blockchain um it's for what it really is is a digital representation a digital asset that can be as basic as most people see it now which is just an interpretation of art or a collectible and you know there are things on your shelf right now right that that cup is not an active mug that is a mug that is a collectible or logo your podcast you know it's it's a representation and we do that in real life however that's where a lot of people think it stops and for me that's just where it starts the token has an underlining


just where it starts the token has an underlining contract capability in it all of these digital assets have the ability to have a contract underneath it what does that mean well it means that anything that has a contract on earth is capable of being turned into an nft and contracts come in many forms contracts come in the form of a ticket to a sporting event contact you know contracts come in the form of selling someone a home contracts come in a reservation to a restaurant um a a signed contract to do a meet-and-greet with your fans um it might mean an obligation to send somebody a hoodie and a mug with your logo of your podcast on it so you know tomorrow let me let me i think people learn from examples tomorrow your podcast is exploding you say everybody i have an nft and we made a thousand tokens and if you go on 900 of the tokens if you buy the token it's a very cool piece of art i've teamed up with this other you know uh indian artist but


up with this other you know uh indian artist but he happens to live in brazil very inspired by that culture and our culture and he's made some cool interpretations of the microphone of the earplugs of the words of wisdom that have come out of my podcast the guests that have been on my podcast and the first 900 of them they just come with a mug and a t-shirt so if you buy it now you come to the website you connect your wallet which holds your nft and you'll also get a mug and a t-shirt now 90 of them are a token that is in silver same pictures but in silver those 90 all of 90 of you twice a year i will have an event and you can come and listen to my podcast live with four special guests next 10 of them are in gold if you buy one of the 10 you come and have dinner with me for one hour each or together or nine of them are gold and we have a 10 person dinner me and the


and we have a 10 person dinner me and the nine people that buy the token the platinum there's only one platinum token that will be auctioned off that has dinner with me and you will be on my podcast that is the part of nfts that people are not thinking about after though people get their now that's fine that's kind of like easy to understand here's where it gets interesting in the contract it also says that every time somebody sells a token you get a 10 royalty right so now we do this whole thing a fan buys for let's use american dollars because i understand it better 80 american dollars the hoodie and the eight let's say eight eight american ducks the hoodie and the mug and they have your token couple things one when friends in two years look at their public wallet they'll see that they're a fan of you and they'll say i listen to his podcast too oh my god you've been listening so long that you got the original tokens got it social currency like a


got the original tokens got it social currency like a blue check like a following count like a subscription like what your rating is on an amazon podcast you understand so there's gonna be currency in having the token proving what you did and what's supported and what you liked and what you collect number two now i've been listening to you just like i have fans and after five years you're like yeah i got it garyvee i'm gonna move on hey i still have this token and somebody just offered me five hundred dollars for it because it was the original token and they're a big garyvee fan i'm gonna sell it now you made five hundred dollars or four hundred fifty because i make fifty dollars on the transaction so the artist the intellectual property holder the originator now makes all the secondary and in perpetuity transactions on that asset which is non-existent in our society the end beautiful um i think the analogy i want to withdraw from nft is to explain it as someone who's probably still


is to explain it as someone who's probably still not understood it is three things one is the trophies we see on xbox and playstation it's just you know something virtual that you get because you win something or you do something in a video game the second analogy is something i heard someone say on the internet we're all moving into a meta verse a virtual reality world so if you have a virtual reality home in your own virtual reality space you can decorate that home with your nfts that trophy that mug that poster and the third thing i mean this is something you've brought to my daughters which is that it's a form of investment for the future where we're capitalizing on uh pop culture basically social media stars athletes they'll come up with theirs and all currency relationship currency currency you know because don't forget you know i met logan paul and charlie demilio before people knew who they really were you know so it's one thing to invest in someone when they're already it's another thing to see