I was never naughty

The famed ‘bad man’ of Bollywood has an relevation. “I was an exemplary kid. I came from a poor family but I was always good at studies,” says Gulshan Grover. “In fact, I was the kind of kid that the neighbours wanted to borrow, to chat and tell their children to look upto.”
Born and brought up in the Trinagar area of New Delhi, Gulshan Grover did not ever make an issue of not having enough space in the two-room flat that he shared with his parents and siblings. “I was always the neatest boy in school and I always had my homework done in time,” he recalls. “I was never a naughty kid.”
“When I appeared in my first film, Avataar, as Rajesh Khanna’s ungrateful son, my neighbours caught my mother in the gurudwara and shared their condolences,” he laughs. “They said things like, ‘He was such a good child here, look what those Mumbai people have done to him. How could he do such a thing to his father?’ My parents had a tough time explaining to them that I was just essaying a role.”
After scoring a 97 per cent marks from a government school, Grover moved on to study commerce in Sri Ram College of Commerce. “I had to change three buses and walk around four miles to get to college, but I never bunked classes.”
And the reason was not just academics. It was time for love. “I think the naughtiest thing I did as a youngster was to repeatedly fall in love,” he says. “It was actually a big thing at that time for the girl I was seeing was from Miranda House.”
They stayed in touch even after Grover left Delhi to pursue a career in movies in Mumbai. “I landed in Mumbai with promises to go back, flowers and many sweet memories but fate had other plans for us.”
He may not be a twenty-something anymore, but Gulshan Grover stills wants to stay in touch with the youth. “I am a guest star in MTV Roadies and the only reason why I chose to be a part f the project was because I want to know what makes today’s youth click and how I can be a part of them. I definitely was to stay in their midst.”

Published in Hindustan Times Next on December 14, 2006