HOW TO BECOME

A SUPERSTAR !!

A Practical Guide To Become An Ace

Actor In Bollywood, Mumbai Film
Industry.

Shitiz Srivastava
Copyright© 2019 Shitiz Srivastava
All rights reserved.
 Dedication

This book is dedicated to my Mother, Father, Brother, Bhabhi

and my
two canine babies – Chloe and Dodo.
Content

How to Become a SUPERSTAR !! .............................................................................................. 1

Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... 2
Forward ............................................................................................................................................. 3
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 5
Chapter 1 || Don’t become an Actor ......................................................................................... 9
Chapter 2 || Early preparations ................................................................................................. 14
Chapter 3 || Luck, hard work and Talent ................................................................................ 19
Chapter 4 || Acting Workshops ................................................................................................ 24
Chapter 5 || Auditions ................................................................................................................ 29
Chapter 6 || Personal Time Utilization .................................................................................... 33
Chapter 7 || Personality Development .................................................................................... 37
Chapter 8 || Watching movies and reading books ................................................................ 42
Chapter 9 || Cribbing and Negative Attitude ......................................................................... 46
Chapter 10 || The Secret ............................................................................................................ 51
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 55
About the Author .......................................................................................................................... 57
Further Reading ............................................................................................................................. 58
Must watch Movies for Actors ................................................................................................... 60
“Perfection is the enemy of the done.”
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I want to thank Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan who inspired me to get into acting.
Though I never became one, mostly because I didn’t try harder. But still, they motivate me
all the time.
I want to thank my friend Karan Sharma who taught me a lot about acting and its
various forms in depth.
I want to thank my friend Raashul Tandon with whom I had spent a lot of time
discussing nuances of acting.
I want to thank my friend Avinash Dhyani for spending countless nights with me
arguing on acting techniques and giving me inside information about an actor’s life.
I want to thank every person I have met during my journey in Mumbai and numerous
films shoots which taught me one thing or another and every actor who shared their
experiences with me.
I want to thank my family for supporting me at the time I was writing as I was nearly
broke but they never lost an iota of trust in me.

2
 FORWARD

There is a reason that I have kept this book a small book. My target was to write 10,000
words and I stopped after achieving the target.
Why?
I will tell you why.
Most of the people I know are not readers and they don’t like to read books or listen to
lectures. I am not one of those people who would say that if you won’t read a book then you
will never be successful. No. The knowledge can come from anywhere if a person is keen to
learn. John Nash didn’t like reading books but single-handedly developed Game theory and
won the Noble Prize. If you had seen the brilliant performance of Russell Crowe in “A
Beautiful Mind”, then you would know who John Nash is.
I could have turned this book into a giant mass of content with numerous other books
and celebrity references but then I was sure it wouldn’t help the people I am targeting. It
would be read only by few book worms and that won’t serve the purpose of this book. Most
actors are not good book readers. I didn’t want my book to be bought but never read or
used by anyone, the way it I intended to be.
I wanted to write a book that even the non-readers could finish it at one go and re-read
it again whenever they feel demotivated.
A book that will make them want to stand up and challenge the world again.
I tried refraining myself from giving too much moralistic and ethical talks and tried
writing as many practical actionable pointers as possible.
There is one assurance that I can give you right now. If you follow the book, understand
the rules mentioned in this book and clearly follow every rule with an open mind then there
is no way that you will not succeed in the field of acting.
The complete faith and complete trust in the system is what a system requires to work
perfectly. You cannot pick and choose faiths and believes based at your convenience.
Just go through them and even though you find them hard to do, keep doing them.

3
 Keep doing them, even when nothing seems to be working.
When you are walking in the dark night towards the city of success, I promise you that
you will find yourself inside the city, at morning.
So Keep patience and best of luck.

Shitiz Srivastava
20th Feb 2019.

4
 INTRODUCTION

There was a time when I wanted to become an actor. I tried it for a brief period of time
but couldn’t sustain long. So, I plunged into the direction field. Turned out I was a much
better writer and a director than an actor.
I failed at acting. I failed mainly because I didn’t try hard enough. I left it early after
watching the struggle of other actors, negativity of strugglers and long queues at audition
centers. At that time, everyone seemed more knowledgeable than me, more talented than
me, more experienced than me and more handsome and beautiful than me. I felt I had no
chance in the mob of those struggling actors.
Nearly a decade has passed since then and it took me lot of research, interviews, book
readings and questioning to understand why most people don’t succeed as an actor in
Mumbai.
None of the people I met during my struggle days could turn their lives into anything.
Few left the city and joined some jobs or business in their hometown. Few compromised
and ended up doing small roles here and there on TV and sometimes on films. Few of them
I met later had completely lost their mind. They told me their failure stories which for them
was their success stories. Not many can afford to live in the creative world of Mumbai and
maintain a decent amount of sanity.
There are certain tips and tricks to make it in any field. Of course, there is an age-old
method of “try and test” but the problem with the acting field is that age is a big factor here.
After a certain period of time, you are no longer considered a lead hero material because you
look old. There is an influx of young kids coming to Mumbai every day, most of them are

5
rich and well connected. It is natural to feel left out, and scared that you are never going to
make it here.
I had been against nepotism for the majority of my life but then I got to meet some
successful stars, few star kids and few young actors who made it on their own. It was
apparently clear to me as why nepotism was preferred by most actors. It was then I got to
know that why directors prefer star kids over an unknown actor who might be a better actor.
Working on films is not just about acting. It depends more on how you behave on sets;
how much you are ready to dedicate yourself to the project and how well you gel with other
people.
Surprisingly I found that star kids were much more down to earth than the actors who
made it on their own. I know few actors who became successful after long periods of
struggle and they had all kinds of complaints about the film industry. They think that
industry is biased and they never got their due. They forget the fact while spewing all that
negativity that how their films never made any profit. Even after giving flops after flops,
they think people should promote them because they have acting skills. They are very
judgmental about others acting. They want compensation for their struggle by getting more
unconditional work but have no merit behind them. Most of them are six abers with Punjabi
pink white face and acting is not required for them, rest of them are not so good-looking
method actors who think that there isn’t an actor in this entire world who can challenge
them on acting. Of course, most of the time they are on weed and justify their mediocre
acting by calling it subjective.
There is no good acting or bad acting in films. They are either accepted by audience or
they are not accepted by audience, that is the only factor that works if you want to judge
acting. Great acting in a flop film will never work. Similarly bad acting in blockbuster film
can make one’s career.
You must have seen the interview of Naseeruddin Shah where he mentions that he
doesn’t think that Amitabh is a good actor and Sholay isn’t a good film. If that is not
negativity then I don’t know what is. Naseer is condemning a fellow actor who is a super
star in the name of creativity just because his own films never made any money. It is not
criticism, it is jealousy.
The title of Woody Allen movie starring the God-of-Awkward-Comedy Larry David
perfectly sums up one rule that works in any industry, and it is no exception to film industry
– Whatever Works.
If Amitabh Bachchan works, then he works. Period. The audience loves him. You don’t
have your multiple films running for years in cinema halls out of fluke. There is no perfect
definition of acting and given opportunity I highly doubt that Naseer could create the same
intensity that Bachchan brought in his characters in Deewar or made people cry at his death
scene in Sholay and Agneepath.
The film industry is full of negative people, self-proclaimed gurus, advisers who can
recite thousands of reasons why you will never make it in the film industry but I bet they
can’t tell you one single reason that why you should stay and why you will make it to the top
in the film industry. They won’t have a single positive advice for you on that.

That is why I wrote this book.

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 During my first year in Mumbai, I met several negative people who told me I made the
wrong decision of coming to Mumbai. I was highly demotivated and every day of mine was
passed in regrets of why I am doing what I am doing. I kept questioning myself. In the end,
they were wrong and I was right. Just two years after coming to Mumbai without having any
connections or Godfather whatsoever, I got to direct my first film, in which I also acted, and
then. I never stopped. A year later I directed my second film.
I had always been fascinated with actors my entire life.
I met numerous actors during my stint in Bollywood and they told me their life and
other’s life stories. I also took workshops for actors and tried to know in detail what were
the factors that stopped most people from becoming a top actor. The entire journey was
highly insightful.
Mumbai is a city full of rumors disguised in the shape of rumors. They can corrupt the
minds of even the most positive people.
So be positive and throw away the false stats and narratives that will be thrown on your
face by gossipers about why you can’t be a superstar in Mumbai film industry.
Just believe in yourself and remember if you think you are going to be part of this
industry, then love this industry for what it is rather than hating it and criticizing it on daily
basis. I never understood how people hated and criticized the industry they want to work in
and at the same time still wanted to be a part of it.

7
 “A Superstar celebrity is not just an actor, he is also a
businessman, a PR manager, a social media enthusiast, a
public speaker, a negotiator all wrapped in one. If he knows a
little bit acting too, that would b an additional advantage.”

8
 Chapter 1 || Don’t become an
Actor

T he first thing that you have to do right now once you have decided to choose

acting as your career is to make sure what you really want to become-
Do you want to become an actor or do you want to become a superstar?
Confused. Yes, you should be. Most actors I meet in Mumbai never accept that they
want to become an actor, leave apart superstar. They are so embarrassed being called an
actor, like it some sort of a curse word. I understand actors are usually looked with contempt
because few of them would go to any lengths to get work and are mostly unemployed but
being embarrassed is not the solution. There is also a prevalent belief among most people
that actors are brainless. That is why most actors I have met in Mumbai unless they are in an
audition, are afraid to identify themselves as an actor.
However, it is very necessary that you take pride in the profession that you desire to get
into. Start calling yourself an actor right now. Get a business card printed and keep it on
your purse all the time.
Again, coming back to the previous question.
If you want to be an actor, it's good. If you want to be a superstar, better.
Say it loudly and never be embarrassed by it.
Normally most actors want to become a superstar but they hide behind more diplomatic
words like “good actor”. Deep down we all know what every actor's dream is – to become a
superstar.
Both, being an actor and being a Superstar celebrity is not the same no matter how much
you like to believe that.
If you want to become a serious actor, join theatre, learn the nuances of acting and then
come to Mumbai and begin doing character roles. You can also join NSD or FTII and start
your career from there, however, the struggle of auditions won't change. It will help you

9
initially by giving you some contacts inside the industry. Contacts through people who were
your senior in FTII or who visited FTII. You will be happy to get few roles in films and TV
if you are lucky you might end up becoming a lead actor like Rajkumar Rao in few films
(chances of which are minimal) but then that's it. You might never be accepted in
mainstream cinema properly as you will always be cited as a good actor.
To become a superstar, you don't need that much training in acting. Don’t take that in a
negative manner as it does not mean that acting as an art is a fluke. You need training but
you should not overdo it. Too much knowledge will actually ruin your chances of becoming
a perfect master of the craft. Saying that, again, I don't mean that you should not get some
professional training. Any kind of training is always going to help you in becoming at your
craft. But you get to know how to handle that training. I have met so many lost souls from
the Film industry who think of themselves as super intellectual, who believe that nothing
ever matches their idea of perfection. Indian Cinema is shit for them as they have grown on
the doses of auteur cinema where shots are slow and background music is virtually non-
existent, and the pace of the film is so slow that you have to slog your way till the end of the
film.
Yes, Yes, I understand I will be called a film illiterate by such people and I will be
blamed for not having the sensibilities for understanding the good cinema.
Well, fuck that, because what I care more is the success in any field rather than becoming
a critic or philosopher.
By the way, have you seen any philosophers lately? No not those found on the tea stalls
smoking cigarettes but the real ones with actual knowledge and degree.
Exactly. It is an extinct branch of study and no one pays you for your philosophy
anymore. If you want to be an intellectual philosopher, try blogging, don't come into acting.
If you pick up the number of actors from theatre, NSD, BNA, FTII and other film
institutes and compare them to those who have never been to any film institute and are
successful, you will be amazed by the stats because the ratio will be heavier on the latter side.
Does that mean that film schools are no good?
Wait. I didn't say that either. I was just presenting you the stats.
Film schools are good but only when they give you the right training. Most film schools
are confused about what they want you to become. The problem is that most film schools
concentrate on acting while the students want to become a celebrity like Shahrukh Khan or
Ranveer Singh. That is the conflict of interest due to which when a student comes out of
film school, he feels that he doesn't know anything. He is clueless about how to fight in the
over competitive world of Film acting. He is taught acting but he not made aware of how to
perform in front of the camera such that the audience falls in love with him. He lives in the
assumption that since he has paid money to a film school and spend months there, so he
knows everything about acting. But then he doesn't get work and can't understand why.
Everyone wants to become an actor because of the perks associated with it, not because
they want to be called a good actor. Well, of course, there are exceptions but even those
exceptions want money to survive in a super expensive city called Mumbai. Film awards are
not given for acting excellence either, they are rather given on the parameters of the
popularity of actors among the people.

10
 First of all, stop being ashamed of who you want to be. If you want to be a superstar
then accept it and be proud of it. There has to be no shame inside you for calling yourself a
superstar or desiring to be a celebrity. Anupam Kher would any day replace himself with
Shahrukh but do you think for a moment that Shahrukh would do the same. No, right.
Though we all agree that Anupam Kher is a better actor than Shahrukh.
One of the actors I met during an audition idealized Anupam Kher and wanted to
become like him. Guess what, he ended up doing - small character roles and no marks for
guessing that he never moved up the ladder. The acting was a job for him for his inability to
do anything else. Don’t choose acting as a last resort in your career. It has to be your first
preference or don’t come to try it.
Choose your idols carefully. If your idols are wrong, you will end up in the wrong place.
However, there is nothing wrong in admiring non-hero actors like Anupam Kher,
Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri but I reckon if any one of those is living in the same expensive
bungalows like Shahrukh Khan or Amitabh Bachchan.
So, what does it takes to become a superstar? Should one never try to learn acting?
No, that's not the answer. Like any other art, acting needs to be learned as well. When
people say that they think acting cannot be learned, they are ignorant fools who like to say
quotes that do not make any sense. What they mean to say is that acting can be learned but it
does not guarantee a lead role in a big budget movie or a lucky break striking you to make
you a sure shot superstar.
You must learn acting but along with that, you have to keep your life goals clear as well.
I don't care where you learn art of acting from but from all that learning chose which
information you want to keep and which information you don't want to keep.
At acting schools the only things you need to learn is this :

How to face the camera.

How to remove your shyness.
How to perform in front of lots of people.
How to express yourself physically.
How to talk slowly, take right pauses and control the modulation of your voice.
Beyond this, there is nothing that you need to learn in the name of acting.
But this is not easy. It takes a lot of practice which you can only get when you join a film
school or a theatre.
If you want to become an actor who will win people's heart from his acting skills, want
people to say what an actor you are but at the same time, you don’t care about the money
that film is making and how much popular it is, then this book is not for you. This book is
meant for those who want the audience to fall in love with him, irrespective of the character
they are playing. This book is written for those who want people to get so crazy about them
so much so that they line up outside his house to get his autograph, to search his interviews
online and makes his videos hit the million mark the moment they are released on youtube.
This book is for dreamers and not for pessimistic reality seekers.
There is a secret recipe for becoming a good actor which I am going to tell you in the
last chapter but for god's sake do not turn to last chapter in search of that secret. That secret
has a key to open the doors for you but the process of acquiring it must go throught its

11
designated steps. Don’t hasten and don’t lose patience. It never works. The key is useful by
the gradual progression of your knowledge though chapter wise reading which will make
that secret more useful to you. If you try to hurry up and turn to the last chapter, I promise
you that you will find that secret to be extremely tasteless and useless. There are steps to
success and this book will lead you to it but you have to be patient about it and keep reading
it. I can promise you one thing that by the end of this book, you will be prepared to face any
audition and if you will follow the steps properly and take this book in extreme faith then no
power in this universe will stop you from becoming a superstar.
So, the first decision you have to make, and you have to make that decision right now,
that you will finish the book no matter what. There should not be any procrastination on
this thing, decide right now what you want to become. Open your diary or a piece of paper
and immediately write what you want to become.
If you still want to become a great actor, don't waste your time here.
If becoming superstar is your goal, turn the page.

12
“The planning is the key to the success. After all you don’t start
building a luxury apartment without an architectural
blueprint. “

13
Chapter 2 || Early preparations

I don’t care about your feelings and this book is not a feel-good book. This book is

going to have a pragmatic approach towards your life and your career.
Truth be told, the earlier you start, the more chances you will have of becoming a
superstar. If you are in your thirties, keep doing what you are doing, as there will be
immense struggle in front of you if you chose to become an actor. You can try though; it
will be tough but just like anything, it won’t be impossible.
It will take you five years from now before you will land your first role in a big
commercial film if you are not as lucky as Anushka Sharma. Time is a big factor in success.
So, the earlier you start, the better it is. I am assuming here that you are not related to
anyone in the industry and you have absolutely no contacts in the film world.
You might be in school or in college or you have just come out of college. In any case,
start your preparations early. To be an actor, surround yourself with actors. That doesn’t
mean you surround yourself with struggling actors who are ambitious to become actors.
Strugglers will suck all the energy from you, they will also suck your money. I mean
surround yourself with serious actors. Theatre is the best medium to do that. However, as I
told you, since your goal of becoming a superstar is clear so don’t start taking theatre plays
very seriously. Watch movies and no matter how much criticism you face on theatre and
stage, keep acting like it is not a play and imagine there is no audience in front of you rather
hundreds of cameras ready to capture your performance. Make them fall in love with you. If
that requires overacting, do it.
For girls, acting is not the best medium. No, I am not saying that I don’t want you to
choose acting as a career or that actresses are not taken seriously. Remember, this book is
not about me but about you and though I am not gender biased, there are different practical
rules for both actors and actresses. If you are here to raise woman rights flag, and think like
a loser feminist liberal that one day you will change the entire world, bring every culprit to

14
justice, then close this book right now. This is not a book to become an activist or a
superwoman.
For girls, who wants to earn money, live a great life and become famous, learning to act
is not your way in.
But wait -
However, your entry will be much easier if you the play the game right. Don’t worry,
once you are in, hone your acting skills and become top actress in the country. At least you
won’t have to struggle. The best place for you to get in is Modelling. Through modelling you
will get a lot of money and terrific contacts. Don’t worry if you don’t have the height or
good English skills. There is another method. Try Ad films. They work too. But don’t stick
in ad films for too long or you will find your self above 30 soon realizing that no one wants
to cast you anymore. Don’t go for Tv. Tv is a venomous snake that will take you inside and
will never let you out. Aggressive girls with English knowledge with some technical
knowledge are easy to get work than anyone else. If you from a small city or a village, don’t
be disheartened. Join a personality development course. It will help you. Learn makeup a
little bit. Always be proper and even if you have few clothes, always wear clean clothes.
Never let people come near you. The more unapproachable you will be, the more people
will seek your company. I believe that a well dressed and smartly spoken girl always has
advantage over a beautiful bimbo. In urban cities most men have fetish for strong and
dominating woman. Yes, I know what I am writing is kind of manipulative but trust me, you
need this practical advice more than anything else. Don’t fix yourself into the loop of being a
nice person. If acting were everything for an actress to become successful, then Katrina Kaif
would not be ruling the Bollywood. I have met many actresses and trust me; a dominating
aggressive girl is more likely to succeed here in Bollywood than any other girl. I have done
the research but this is my personal observation, most actresses who are at top have a very
dominating nature.
Most film directors are male. Actually, most of the industry is male. And to no one’s
surprise, they all are in awe of beautiful strong women. Become that. Start with modeling
because there is no other dream of a man than to be in company of a model.
But now you must be thinking about the Casting couch, aren’t you? Well, yes because
that’s how negative we are. Do you really think that everyone who makes it in film industry
is going through casting couch? Have you ever wondered why most actress who are vocal
about casting couch are out of work? And when I say about Casting couch I don’t just mean
of females, I mean of males as well.
Do you know how many people I have met who said to me, “I will do anything for a
role?”.
Do you know what that line means?
Yes, exactly.
It gives a hint that you are ACTUALLY ready to do anything for a role and any person
in the world will take advantage of a DESPERATE person.
Most casting couch incidents are mutual. You will be surprised to hear that but it’s true.
There are good and bad people on both sides. I agree that girls suffer a lot in hands of man
vultures and if asked me, I would have their private parts cut off than roam in society freely.
But there is another side to it as well. It won’t sound good or truthful to you because you

15
don’t want to believe in it. But the moment a person enters inside the casting room, you
know whether that person is desperate to do anything for a role or not.
Guess what, the role always goes to a non-desperate person who lives in his own world,
is arrogant, is hated by everyone, thinks highly of himself but the problem is that he will get
the job while you, who is running out of money will blame the world for the way the world
runs.
Another advice, Stop playing victim games. You will get sympathy but sadly no work.
And no flirting is not sexual harassment and till someone makes an advance on you and
touches you inappropriately, it is not sexual harassment. Just slap him, get out of that office
and never go back.
Sounds horrifying but its true.
There are so many actresses I know who made an issue of sexual harassment but then
what - they never got any work.
Why?
It’s because then everyone thought she would be hard to work with and would fear that
even if they share a joke with her, she will accuse them of sexually harassing her.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
The only revenge that you can take in Mumbai is to become successful and then get right
back at him. No other revenge works perfectly than this.
Stop complaining, the world is not a good place and you will meet all kinds of people in
all the fields. It is on no one but the onus lies on you to protect yourself. This applies to men
as well.
It is your responsibility to protect yourself and it is your responsibility to become
successful. No one cares about you more than you yourself.
Be a strong person and never seek sympathy from other people and behave like a victim.
A person with victim mentality will never succeed.
--
Now, coming to early preparations and this applies to both genders.
Watch a lot of movies, as many as you can and try to remember as many names as
possible of people from different departments.
Why?
Because movie gives you the idea of the craft and the names are required for you to
verify it to others that you haven’t just superficially seen the film. There will be times when
director would like to talk to you and see how much you know about cinema, and if you
could brag specifics about a movie, he will be impressed and guess what, you might end up
in his next film.
Be in shape. No, no you don’t need six pack abs. develop six pack abs when someone
other than your father is paying for it. Just be in shape and by any means avoid the bump in
your stomach.
That is all the preparations you will need to go to Mumbai. The only thing you will need
to work on first is not your body but on your mind.
Removing the camera shyness should be your priority and the only method to do that is
practice. Just stand in front of the camera and perform as much as you can.

16
 Prepare yourself for the day when they will ask you to perform in front of the camera
and at that day there should be less chances of you fucking up than giving a good shot.
As promised, there will be another secret in the book (Chapter : Auditions) that will be
revealed in some time in which you will get to know how to give a perfect first shot so that
everyone will start clapping for your performance.
So, arrive Mumbai early, as early as possible, but complete your graduation first because
without it the people in Mumbai will judge you so much that you will lose your confidence.
Also, graduation makes you more smart, intelligent and confidence.
Though I am not in favour of advice that you need to have a backup when you are arrive
in Mumbai for acting job because backups make you weak and will coerce you to quit easily
and early. But finish your graduation – there are no two ways about it.
Moving on.

17
“If hard work was the reason for success, labourers would be
billionaires.”

18
 Chapter 3 || Luck, hard work
and Talent

A girl spends her entire childhood as a privileged kid living as the daughter of an

army officer. She is a topper in her school and a bright student who is good in studies as
well as extra-curricular activities. After school, while doing graduation she starts modelling.
Two years later, she lands up a film at Yashraj Films with Shahrukh Khan. She works will all
three Khans, every top actor like Akshay Kumar, Imran Khan, Sahid Kapoor, Ranbeer
Kapoor, Ranvir Singh and others. Works with every top director like Aditya Chopra, Karan
Johar, Yash Chopra, Anurag Kashyap, Imtiaz Ali, Vishal Bharadwaj, and most of her films
are blockbusters. She opens her own clothing line. Produces her own films which are hits.
Have her own ad film production house. Cited as one of the most beautiful women of India.
Marries the top Cricketer in the world in a dream wedding. Have a bank balance that is
never going to run dry for seven generations. Even after marriage she is working with top
filmmakers and top actors which is a rarity in India.
So yes, luck is there.
If Aditya Chopra had taken another actress in his film and not Anushka Sharma, you
wouldn’t have heard her name anywhere and she would still be struggling to make her way
into Bollywood, might be doing ad films now and then, roaming around in parties, sitting at
WTF Versova with future directors to please them hoping one day they would cast her.
So, yes luck is there.
Is it disappointing to know that?
Yes, it is.
But the best part about the luck is that luck is not in your control.

However, here are two things that are in your control – hard work and talent.

19
 So instead of concentrating on luck, concentrate on these two. There is no use wasting
time thinking over something over which you have no control.

Now, what is talent?

When you work so hard on something that to other people the process and struggle
aren’t visible and they think that what you do comes naturally to you, then it is called talent.
Talent does mean a lot of things but I am telling you the definition from the perspective of
Mumbai.
A kid can have a talent of rotating his body 360 degrees and it is something he never
made any attempt to do but it is there with him.
But that is something that can put you in the circus, not in film line. You have to work
hard in Mumbai to become a talented actor and to become talented you have to work hard.
They both correspond to each other. There is no exception to that and those anecdotes
about actors who got work in Mumbai based on their talents, yes, they are false stories.
Those are the stories that you like to believe rather than the stories which happened in real.
Most actors dramatize their struggle to get more accolades. Not a single one is telling the
truth. The memory of past if often a distorted truth.
There will be chances that even after doing all the hard work, you won’t be successful,
then what.
At this point, I would like to tell you a story.
There was a war and the warriors of the kingdoms of two sides were standing in front of
each other. In some time, the war is about to start when there is an announcement from
God. The God announces that the war will be won by another king of foreign origin. What
would the other king do to save his land then?
Think about the answer.
--
It does not matter whether you have your luck and talent in your control or not because
you have to fight anyways. There is no reason to be demotivated by the fact that there are
few things in this world that are not in your control. Since they are not in your control, let
them operate in the way they would otherwise do. Read Ryan Holiday’s book “Obstacles is
the way” if you read books other than this book by any chance. That book elaborates on
how obstacles will help you move forward rather than stopping you midway.
There is a great saying that says “You make your luck as you move along”.
It is true. If you keep complaining, you won’t get out of your house and will never go to
auditions and if you won’t go to auditions, they will never know you and if they never know
who you are, then you will never get the part.
Luck favours those who show up.
The only thing that is on your control and that will ever be in your control is you acting
on your decisions.
If Rajnikanth had never decided to come to Chennai, study acting and then find work,
he would still be working as bus conductor somewhere in Bangalore without knowing what
to do in life. I am pretty sure he didn’t know that he was going to be such a massive
superstar.

20
 There are hundreds of actors I have met in many cities who do theatre and keep doing
theatre and would keep stalling coming to Mumbai to try their luck here as they are too
afraid of unknown. They are afraid of what would happen if they never get success. I ask
what would happen if they get success. Think positively. Think of the glass half full rather
than glass half empty. What would be the chances that the entire Mumbai was waiting for
another superstar and that turns out to be you but you non the other hand never took a step.
Don’t let this world be deprived of your talent.
Those theatre actors are all well versed in acting for sure and some of them are really
good looking at acting in front of camera but sadly, they would never take a chance. On the
other hand, one guy who hadn’t even work that much in theatre, hadn’t have much
experience in acting but is full of confidence turns up in Mumbai and becomes a superstar.
He ends up becoming the top actor. Yes, I am talking about Shahrukh Khan.
Another guy working in Navy makes a decision to quit his job and arrive in Mumbai to
try his luck in a field he is completely unfamiliar with. He has few contacts though. Three
decades later, he becomes the greatest actor of all time and BBC calls him actor of the
Millennium. Yes, I am talking about Amitabh Bachchan.
Woody Allen said that 90% of success is just showing up.
You might be thinking about what are your chances in a city that is swarming with
actors.
Here is another story for you.
I once called for an audition. I wasn’t living in a very nice place as I didn’t have a proper
source of income at that time. I was planning to make a low budget movie. A boy, who must
be 22-year-old came to the audition and I started telling him about my project. After a while,
I realized that he wasn’t talking much and soon it appeared he wasn’t listening much either. I
asked him why.
He replied, how come I was taking an audition in such a small room with no lights and
camera and assistants. He thought I was a scamster, just like most production houses in
Mumbai are.
I listened to him and then I spoke for fifteen more minutes telling him my vision. It
changed his entire perspective about film line and how to get more work in film line.
When he had come to me, he had done a few ad films and a little bit work here and
there. He had learned acting in an institute and look loan for it. Being a millennial, he
developed this thought that he deserved to be taken care of by everyone and the entire
world owed him a favour to pay him and give him work. He would only go to chosen
auditions and won’t work for free or for favours. This was coming from an out of work 22-
year-old boy who had only done an acting course from some institute, had a loan over his
head, had no connections in Bollywood and believed that he deserved every luxury in this
world.
Most actors in Mumbai after doing some work create a delusional image of themselves in
their mind where they think they are superstars. They are not superstar, but in their own
minds they are. They start holding a load of fake expectations that their audience have from
them when people don’t even know them. When you will tell them a script, most of the time
their reply would be that they won’t do it because people won’t like them in that role. If

21
Shahrukh Khan today says that I can understand, but coming from the mouth of a
struggling 22-year-old boy it was a revelation for me.
So, to your advantage, most actors in Mumbai are living a deluded life and they don’t
often go to auditions and if they have done a little work, they would desire for special
treatment too.
No surprise that they never end up doing anything in life.
I mentored that kid for two more hours and then he called after a year and told me that
he got many assignments and contacts when he tried my methods. He was very thankful to
me. It made me happy and it was at that point I decided to write a pragmatic book to help
others in getting more acting work.
Don’t be afraid and don’t stop. Nothing, not even luck or talent can let success escape
from you if you are ready to do hard work. Save yourself from a fake sense of achievement,
stop patting your shoulder for a while, do a little hard work and don’t commend yourself for
the struggle you faced, it is not someone else’s fault and it is not a big deal. Do not run into
a loop of thinking yourself as a celebrity because you don’t know from where the
opportunity will come from and in what form. Your best project could come from the worst
audition you ever gave and it could be handed to you by the person you dislike most.
Life is weird, accept it.

22
“If someone says acting cannot be taught, he is an idiot. Like
any other art, there are rules to it which can be taught. What
cannot be taught is to give a personal touch to that art and get
successful in it.”

23
Chapter 4 || Acting Workshops

D o you want to join an acting workshop but can’t decide which one is the best?

No, I am not here to give you the list of institutes in which you can apply. That won’t
help you. For that, I think the better source will be your omnipresent search friend
“Google”.
I am here to tell you whether the acting workshops are worthy of doing or not.
Well, many people in Mumbai have opened an acting workshop because they know that
there is a demand for it and misguided youngsters will always fall in their traps. They don’t
teach much and whatever they teach is normally orthodox.
You will be sometimes told to read old books in those classes to become a great actor,
like reading Natyashashtra.
Now, Natyashshtra is for theatre and was customized for theatre acting. Films were not
invented when it was written.
I have been privileged to be a part of a few acting classes. In some, I taught and in some,
I went there for my amusement as there are many free classes happening in Mumbai all the
time.
In the classes I attended, I had to control myself from laughing because they were telling
the students everything about acting except, acting. They had no clue how to make or break
in Bollywood.
In one of the class, the teacher was a man who did an extra’s role in a TV soap. He
entered the room and in high pitch voice started shouting (read ‘teaching’) us. I am still not
sure whether he was shouting or talking. The first thing he did when he entered inside the
class was to make us meditate for half an hour, then made us lie down on the ground and
then asked us to make various sounds. It felt he passing time there. It was easy to know that
he was fake. He had no knowledge of acting and no experience whatsoever. The worst thing
he did in the class was to ask students whether anyone had any questions. He couldn’t
answer a single one of them in direct manner. He was like that barber in my neighbourhood

24
who only knew one way to cut hair. No matter what style you will ask him to cut your hair,
he would say yes and then cut them in the same manner. It was not acting class, it was a
vanity class and we were all there to satisfy his vanity dreams of being an acting coach.
Most Acting coaches will teach you breathing exercises but they won’t tell what they are
for and you will be asked to take their words for granted. Some acting teachers who do it for
free are those who couldn’t make it in the acting business but have a really high opinion of
themselves. Never attend free acting classes. All they want is validation from other people
that they are good actors and command over other people for the sake of their own vanity.
It is like entering inside a cult.
Nothing free is ever worth having.
Does this again demotivate you?
Well, this book was to reveal the truth to you and if the truth makes you demotivates
you, then be it. because my whole concern is to make you a star and save you from things
that will waste your time and money.
My entire aim is to save you from the illusions that this industry will create in your mind.
My aim is to save you from mental roadblocks.
My aim is to save you from making the same mistakes that everyone makes and never
reaches anywhere.
My aim is to create a road for you on which you can easily walk and turn yourself into a
successful actor.
I don’t care whether you have done acting workshops or not. I don’t care whether in the
future you chose to do acting workshops or not. But in case you are already in an acting
workshop or desperate to join acting workshop as you have a belief that it is the only place
where you can learn acting, then here is some advice –
Before joining it, if you would know why you are doing it then it will become easier for
you to gain most from it and it will turn out to be a much more beneficial experience for
you.
So, what are the things that you need to take from Acting workshops?
If they teach you voice modulation, learn it because you would need to do it for various
roles.
If they teach you rolling exercises or breathing exercises, it is a sheer waste of time. The
only type of breathing you need to learn for acting is the kind you already doing right now.
Shahrukh and Ajay Devgun smokes whole day long, so I reckon good breathing will make
you a good actor. Right pauses, right intonations and saying dialogue correctly is more
important.
Stay away from coaches who just sits and entertain you with stories about the film
industry. That is less of teaching and more of gossiping. It will only waste more of your time.
The most important thing you will learn in an acting workshop will be performing and
that should be the only thing you need to learn. All you need to learn in an acting workshop
is how to perform in front of people, get over your shyness, face the camera and get help
from your teacher and fellow students to properly evaluate your performances. The more
criticism you will face, the better you will come out to be.

25
 Between workshop and audition, give priority to audition but try to complete the
workshop if possible because since you have paid, so completing it will make you feel
confident about your skills.

Acting cannot be taught.

It is a famous saying because acting can only be performed. Acting is an active art. It is
not like sitting in your home, reading theoretical physics and formulating your own theories.
It is also not like painting where you can take a brush and colours and then paint for hours
in isolation.
Acting is a process in which you have to perform on the first day itself in front of
multitude of people and there will be no excuse. Even a young actor standing in the back
has to be on the field in front of people and perform.
So, do you need guidance?
Of, course you need guidance. But don’t waste money on advertised film schools
because the more a person would be advertising for a film school, the less are the chances
that it is any better, for the simple reason that they have to promote it so much.
I once taught at a film school. It was just a day class as the owner was a friend and he
couldn’t come that day. The institute was run by the husband of a famous TV artist. I took
just one class and everyone started calling me after that. Not to my surprise, I was never
asked to teach again because I think I taught better and the man couldn’t handle the praise I
was getting. He was teaching the same things that every other institute taught. His teaching
methods were very predictable. He was also teaching the breathing exercises and all, and I
told them more practical ways.
I once also taught at a dingy film school in Thane. I went 15 Km to that place as I was
low on money and I desperately needed a job. I thought for three hours and all the students
were very happy. They gave the owner of that institute positive feedback. Later when I went
to meet them, it showed on their face that they didn’t have any trust in me but after I left,
they kept calling me to join them but I didn’t. There was a very negative atmosphere in the
place.
What did I teach them that they become my fan?
Well, first I told them that they can become not just an actor but a superstar, which I
reckon anyone had ever told them. Most acting teachers will scold you the moment you tell
them that you are chasing acting field for fame, glory and money. Not me, I motivate people
to chase these things.
Second, I told them that they don’t have to think too much and the most enjoyable part
of the entire process is the failure. The more you fail the more successful you become. So, I
lifted the burden from them that they have to be successful all the time.
Third I didn’t give them a script to improvise. I asked them about them like what they
are in their personal lives and asked them to copy their favourite actors. That is something I
know is something that every actor prepares for months. They love doing it. It builds their
confidence and they enjoyed doing it.
My fourth trick was to let them shout a curse word. This exercise made them break
boundaries in their life and they felt liberated. Of course, to break the character of real them

26
they have been living for such a long time, they have to do something that is not a part of
their character.
The fifth thing is I told them were the inspiring and motivational stories (not gossip
stories) of great actors and how they became actors by struggling and persistence and not
just by learning techniques.
Sixth I told them about Scriptwriting, camera, lighting, editing and direction a little bit
because as an actor you need to have some basic knowledge about these things as well as
you are going to deal with them at time or other in your acting career. I gave them
knowledge and since the knowledge is always directly proportional to the confidence, it
made them feel confident.
I showed them stats that how normally most wannabe actors don’t go to the auditions as
much as they should but like to believe that they do and that’s why they never get any good
roles.
The best part often ends up with the man who shows up rather than the man who
is more talented.

27
“The difference between a successful actor and a failed actor is
that successful one approaches audition happily thinking he is
the solution to their problems, failed actors reaches audition
thinking, “How could they judge me and my art of acting?”.

28
 Chapter 5 || Auditions

T here is no way you can ignore the importance of auditions.

Wait, here is the first and most precious advice – STOP HATING AUDITIONS.

Auditions are not taken to doubt your talent as an actor. They are the screening process
to separate the good actors from bad actors and to check whether you fit the role.
People often take audition rejections very personally and often hold grudge against
casting directors and their assistants, on the other hand, the casting director doesn’t even
know the name of the actor he is supposedly holding grudge against.
Auditions are the best thing that can happen to an actor because it helps their acting
talent and separates a good actor from a crowd of wannabe’s.
Don’t think from Casting Director’s point of view and just imagine this -
Someone has spent money and hired a room, people, lights and camera so that actors like you can come
and perform in front of them.
So why get irritated.
An actor has to be always ready to perform, irrespective of the place and time. If you
think you are so good that you do not want to perform without getting paid first - Leave the
city immediately as that very single thought would be the reason for your impending doom.
No one will pay you till you get your brand established and let me be clearer about it -
you are not supposed to ask for payments before then as well. If you get paid consider
yourself lucky. Work for free wherever you can and get contacts and profile ready.
Do not enter the acting field (just & only) because of money as you can make more
money with a guarantee of it happening at many other jobs and businesses but choose the
acting field for fame and money both. Fame only comes when you are better and different
from other people. Don’t worry about money. Money follows the trail of the fame.
Have you ever wondered that people who worry too much about money doesn’t often have any?

29
 --
Do you think Ranveer Singh is highly talented?
Yes.
Does he got break because he was talented?
No, he is son of a rich businessman who had tremendous connections. In terms acting,
if there is one person who is on the top position on his own then it is only one guy and it is
Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
For others who do not have enough connections and does not have enough money, they
have no other way but to give auditions. So, don’t ever curse the only way you have.
But the question arises - how to give successful auditions?
First of all, never let your mood go off, ever, while you are a struggling actor in Mumbai.
No no, I am not trying to be sympathetic towards you. Actually, being in the state of bad
mood will waste a lot of your time and devoid you of some great ideas which would have
come to you if only you had kept your mind empty and positive.
Second, if you think auditions are only for getting an acting job, then you are GROSSLY
mistaken.
Auditions are not just for getting acting jobs. Auditions are a great way to make contacts
with other actors, casting directors, to know more people, know more about production
houses, make your presence felt and have a clip of you made for free which will
automatically be rotated at several places.
And in the end, it gives you a chance to perform and hone your skills at acting.
Another point I want to make is that – stop shouting and lying about how many
auditions you went to. The truth is you haven’t been to as many auditions as you should
have and you know that.
Just because you didn’t get success at the last five auditions doesn’t mean that you won’t
be selected at other auditions as well.
I have met so many strugglers who would tell me that they have been to every audition
in the city, been to every production house and yet they haven’t got the result. But when I
would ask them to name the production houses they have visited, they wouldn’t move
beyond five or six.
The truth was that they went to a few auditions and production houses and when they
didn’t get the result, they convinced themselves that there won’t be work for them anywhere
else as well.
Another great advice for you – Stop feeding bullshit to your own mind.
Now there will be two more things that will happen when you will go for auditions.
First, you will see people who are smarter and more beautiful than you are. Second, you
will see people who have more contacts with casting directors than you.
Don’t be frustrated by that. Yes, it is true that rich, well connected and stars kids easily
become stars but then again it is not true in every case so you don’t have to worry about
that. Also, the economic status of a person is something you have no control over. So, don’t
fret over something you don’t have any control over.
The people who are more beautiful than you, smarter than you and well-connected than
you are coming to give auditions, then they are the same as you. Don’t feel inferior to them.
If they were better, and well connected, they wouldn’t be at auditions.

30
 While giving auditions it is very important that you stop caring about what other people
are doing. Competition is good but the unnecessary competition is something that gives you
only frustration, and frustration is never good. The healthy competition happens only when
you know the person and it is never about job, it is more about knowledge and hard work.
George Clooney said in an interview that he was rejected in nearly every audition he ever
went to and his success was limited to small screen roles. He decided one day that from next
time whenever he will go to any audition, he will believe that he is the solution to every
casting director’s problem, he believed that he was the right actor the casting director was
looking for and that is how he approached every audition. What a great way to motivate
himself. No doubt, he soon starts getting great roles.
He says that he never thought of an audition as audition rather as a performance ground
which is given to him to perform in front of few people, called Casting Directors, who are
also his audience, for which they have spent money to set everything up and have waited an
entire day to see his performance.
It does not matter what story you make for yourself. What matters is that you keep going
to the auditions without ever feeling demotivated. Maybe you will not be selected for the
first 50 auditions you will give but soon it will change everything when everyone will get to
know you and suddenly you will find yourself overworked. I say take auditions as a kind of
work that you have to do daily. Don’t think of acting job that you get from auditions as
work rather think of auditions as work and acting job as a luxurious exercise to become
famous and keep doing it till you achieve success.
You will learn so much about acting while giving auditions again and again and you will
find your personality developing positively.
It is this and nothing else that will help you in gaining contacts and more work.
Between the guy who is more talented and the guy who is more persistent, it is
always the guy who is more persistent who wins the game of life.
Now, pick your audition bag and run to give more auditions.

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“It is not what you do in your office that makes a difference in
your career, its what you do when you are at home after office
that makes you better than others.”

32
 Chapter 6 || Personal Time
Utilization

O ne of the most important things you have to do while struggling for acting work

in Mumbai is to manage your personal life.

Popular Advice - If you have a Girlfriend/ Boyfriend, leave her/him and concentrate on your work.
Sorry for that advice.
My apologies because the above line is the worst advice that you can ever get while your
stay in Mumbai.
Among the crowd of people who are too busy building their own lives, your
girlfriend/boyfriend will be one thing that you will need a lot.
A good friend is like a dustbin where you can throw all your negative thoughts without
being judged.
I broke up with my girlfriend (now ex) in the first year of Mumbai and for next seven
years never made any girlfriend. I tried not to have any relationships with anyone. It didn’t
help and I can tell you that from my personal experiences.
Career is one thing and the relationship is another. Don’t mix them. You need both of
them. All you need to know is how to balance them. Both would be very well needed in your
struggle in Mumbai.
Now, coming to more important issues. Yes, more important issues than your romantic
relationships.
How you spend your time in Mumbai?
I know the question sounds weird but yes, it matters a lot.
Most actors I know are extrovert by nature, but because of the advent of mobile
technology, they rarely meet anyone. Second thing is that the moment an actor does any
screen role he becomes very image conscious and does not like to sit everywhere. He talks

33
only to his dear ones, that too in a pretentious manner and never gets too close to anyone
thinking they might want a selfie or a sign.
Sadly, nothing like that happens as no one cares that much about them as much as they
like to believe that they do and they finally end up sulking lonely in their own house scrolling
their contact list trying to find someone to talk their hearts out.
Some actors who become rich goes to party a lot and end up wasting the majority of
their time with opposite sex doing sexual things, believing it is life.
Well, to an extent it could be if your father has left a huge estate for you which brings
monthly instalments in your bank account.
However, the idea of life that they are living is borrowed from page 3 magazines and
Filmfare. The truth is far from it.
In my journey of eight years in Mumbai, I have seen so many talented actors wasting
their talents because instead of honing their skills they are busy copying the lifestyles of
other actors.
But I believe that you are not one of them as you have picked this book.
You have to manage your personal life better and the best way to do that is to hone your
skills.
An engineer needs to know everything about engineering to become a good engineer. A
statistician needs to know everything about statistics to become a good statistician. Similarly,
a good actor needs to know everything about acting to become a good actor.
Most of the actors don’t spend their time honing their acting skills rather they would
spend most of their time in daydreaming of achieving success someday like Shahrukh Khan.
Work hard on your art and there is no way they can stop you from becoming what you
want to become.
There can be counter-argument from your side that what about NSD and FTII kids who
know everything about acting but are never as successful as star kids.
The answer to that is this –
To become a good writer you need to read a lot of books but that does not mean that someone reading a
lot of books will become a good writer.
Stephen King
I think you Got it.
No matter what knowledge you are acquiring, if that knowledge does not have a
direction than that entire knowledge won’t bring any results.
You have to steer your boat in the direction in which you want to go, just steering the
boat directionless won’t take you anywhere.
Secondly, students of FTII and NSD are full of themselves. They think they know so
much about acting that they stop working on their acting skills the moment they are out of
institute and reach Mumbai. Acting is a life long process of learning.
They think they know everything about acting just because they gathered so much praise
at their institutes. What they don’t understand is that film acting and theatre acting are two
completely different things. While theatre teaches you to become a good actor, you also
need to know what it takes to stand in front of the camera and deliver your dialogue in harsh
lighting while expressionless dull, tired faces staring at you from all sides.
You must invest your personal time in doing three things –

34
 Watch a lot of movies.
Read a lot of books
Read a lot of newspaper (especially film news because that is where you want to go so
you must be aware about who’s who of industry and what is going on inside.)
I would highly advice you to work for free in short films as practice to keep getting
better at art of acting and take it as an opportunity to learn new things.
The person who does these things can never fail because he is constantly working on his
skills to become better.
As an actor, you need to be a good conversationalist because it is not always talent that
gets you work. If you are nice to everyone on sets and behave nicely than you will create
more goodwill and hence more repeat value, and as a result more work. Even if you are an
arrogant, cocky, sarcastic, bad mouth bastard, pretend to act cool and nice, because hey, that
is the field you are in. You are in the field where you will be paid to pretend to be someone
else, so start doing it from today. More the people will like you, the more they will
recommend you.
Read the book/Listen to Audio book “How to win Friend and Influence People” by
Dale Carnegie as it will teach you how to best deal with people. The book is a bible for
people who want to know more about human behaviour and how to manipulate others
behaviour to make them like your more. In non-fiction category the book as been sold more
than 50 million times and I am not even counting the pirated copies and its digital version
on torrents.
Are you a party animal?
Sad, because here is bad news for you,
Don’t go to parties until there are very important people coming to the party which can
help you in moving your career upwards, otherwise it is just another night wasted.
Don’t waste any time in Mumbai because an unexplained phenomenon happens in this
city - the time passes very fast here. You will know soon. So, my advice is that don’t waste
any time here as there is so much for you to do.
I am not saying it because it sounds good but because it’s true. During my stay, I kept
doing things that wasted a lot of my time, only to realize soon that time was passing day in
and day out. Before I realized eight years had passed and I felt like I was still at the place
where I started.
Don’t waste any single day without doing something for your career which takes your
career ahead and helps in improving the prospects of it. Your success as an actor will not be
something that will happen to you one day out of blue but because of the accumulation of
the efforts that you did every day for many past years.
Remember, you are not a star kid who had already crossed the most important barrier of
being inside the industry. You have to first enter inside the industry, make a name for
yourself and then, only then your you will get more films. Unless you are very lucky it will
take your nearly four-five films to turn yourself into a successful actor but that is just an
average number it takes for anyone to make your name. Don’t worry too much about it.
Nothing is a rule. You can get success anytime, just keep working hard.

35
“If you are not working on your personality every day, you are
doing an injustice to people by retraining them from meeting
a very influential and charming person.”

36
 Chapter 7 || Personality
Development

T here are no two ways about it that you need to have an awesome personality to

click as an actor.
I personally have a theory. The kind of person that you are in real life will affect the roles
you are going to get.
Film industry has evolved. It is not about acting anymore, rather it is about your screen
presence.
Your audition will decide your fate.
If you have an aggressive personality and you have a go-getter attitude you will get
similar roles.
Subconsciously you will always be acting as ‘you’ wherever you will go.
Suppose you are 25 years old. Then it means that for 25 years you have been living with
yourself so when someone comes to you and asks you to become someone else or adopt to
a character, you cannot just remove your real personality in a minute and become someone
else. I am pretty sure that Nawazuddin Siddiqui won’t work in a rich man’s role though he is
a very seasoned star but there is no way he can bring class to that role because he cannot just
become that. In the similar manner, you cannot expect Saif Ali Khan to play a beggar.
Audience will never accept it and he will never look the part.
In theatre you work hard to become something else and no one cares about your real
name till you are introduced it the end.
In films, despite an actor trying hard to be someone else, people will always come to see
them. Aamir worked so hard on his body and character in Dangal but despite all his hard
work, audience didn’t go to see Dangal because there was an unrecognisable actor who
performed great but they went to see Aamir in a different role.
Commercial films don’t work because of great acting but because of great personality of
the lead actor.

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 A majority of your success is how you behave in real life because that is the kind of roles
you will get in reel life.
It is also psychologically true. The kind of person you behave to be, is the kind of person
you end up becoming. Read Maxwell Maltz’s book “Psycho Cybernetics” if you want to
know more about how your thoughts change your personality.
If you want to become a hero, act like hero in real life. The kind of roles that you want
to do, do that roles in your real life. Become that person and act like that person and you
will soon start behaving and looking like one.
You also have to work on your voice. A good, patient voice and slow talkers are always
appreciated. A fast talker is never taken seriously. So, talk slow.
Never put your hands in your pocket as it shows nervousness. Always use hands and
your body when you are talking or conversing with someone. It makes your talk more
interesting because as an actor it is not just facial expression and dialogues which is going to
win you public approval but your entire body language.
You can only become a star when audience will fall in love with your personality and
want to imitate you.
Wear good clothes and have your hair cut twice a month. Looking good for an actor is
not a passion but a necessity. Good looking people get more work. It does not matter
whether you are fat, short or dark what matters is that how you carry yourself.
When talking to other people always look in the eye and never pick your phones while
talking. Looking in the eyes give others impression that you are interested in them and not
picking calls means a sign of respect that you care more for the person in front of you than
on the virtual end.
Another secret rule of acting I want to tell you is that while on sets when the camera is
on you, never blink your eyes. When the audience is watching you they are making an eye
contact with you as a person and a blink will break the eye contact and hence their
association with you. Hypnotize them with your eyes.
When I first get to know this secret, I started observing great actors. They never blink in
their close shots. One of those actors is Amitabh bacchan and I think that is why more
audience connects with him.
Watch Amitabh Bachchan’s performance in Agneepth and Hum and especially watch
close shots of his face and try to note down how many times he blinked in the scene. You
will be surprised. Al Pacino in Scent of a woman didn’t blink his eyes one in the entire film,
as he was blind in the film. He manages to intimidate everyone with his performance int hat
film. No wonder he won an Oscar for that role.
For that you should practice looking straight at someone’s eyes without blinking.
Not many friends will agree to waste their time in an exercise like this where the only
person who will benefit will be you.
So how can you achieve that?
Good question.
There are exercises that will make your better. Hammer a nail at any wall in your room at
your eye level and daily spend half an hour looking at that nail without blinking. Initially you
will feel pain in the eyes but with time you would be open your eyes for a longer time
without blinking.

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 Have you heard those phrases about people that their gaze was very strong? Yes, they
were talking about this only.
Decide on a signature dress. Clothing is very important.
Do you know the first thing a person notices when they meet you is your shoe?
Then they look at your clothes and based on that they decide whether they have to talk
nicely to you or not.
A good shoe, a great metallic watch (an apple watch is a no, no.. it wears off your
manliness so easily), and great crisp sharply ironed clothes are must accessories on your
body when you move out of your room. Also, if you want to wear few extra accessories, do
that.
Read blog www.artofmanliness.com to act more like man.
You don’t have to spend a lot of money on buying new dress. Just buy few dresses and
keep rotating them but make sure they establish your style.
Remember Charlie Sheen from Two and a Half Men. There was a signature dress that he
wore in nearly every episode - the bowling shirt and a half Cargo pants with normally brown
loafers. When you think of Charlie Harper (Charlie Sheen) from that series, you can only
envision him in that bowling dress. Same goes for Barney Stinson from How I met your
mother.
Costumes are very important and they make you more noticeable. Whenever people will
see someone wearing that dress, they will think about you. This art of making yourself
recognized by costumes and other wearables is called Peacocking. The more you will do
peacocking the more people will identify you. That will help directors and casting guy
remember you whenever they will think of an actor to do a particular role.
Shoes. Another most underrated category in body language. As I discussed earlier, always
wear great shoes. Don’t ever go for sandals, or chappals or nagra or others. It shows that
you do not care. Wear pump shoes or sports shoes or black shoes as they work everywhere.
Dress up like you have made an effort to meet someone. It will give them an impression that
you care about them and they will value you more. Very rarely you will meet an actor dress
up nicely. They are normally in casuals and they think they look nice just because they have
good face and good hair. Don’t copy others and create your own style. Wear accessories and
anything that can differentiate you from other people.
Another most important aspect is handshake. Be firm in handshaking. Trust me, there
will be more people who will be judging you just from your handshake than anything else.
Be firm but always know when to let go of your hand. Don’t hold someone’s hand too tight
and too long. Holding hands gives a human touch and it makes an instant connection with
other people but holding it too long will make people feel that you are crossing the
boundaries and you are more interested in them than they are in you.
Similar rule goes for Hugging. When you hug, hug tightly, but not to girls of course or
they will feel that you are taking advantage of them. Hug for lesser time and they will think
you didn’t like them but if you hug for more than required time, you will be irritating for
them. There is just 3 second rule for this. Count to three and release yourself.
Work on your personality as much as you can. It is not a on time thing and just like you
take a bath everyday (I really believe that you do), working on your personality is a day to
day job.

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 Attend personality development seminars and workshops. Yes, they help you in bringing
your extrovert personality out. Go to party sometimes and to expensive restaurants just to
see how people dress up. Keep your eyes and mind always open and keep observing what
people are wearing and how they are behaving. It will you help tremendously.
Have some ideals of your own who you try to emulate in your daily life. It will give you a
sense of style and a direction to dress up yourself.
A good personality goes a long way.

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 “Behind every successful man who said he got lucky, he
worked harder than everybody in the nights when they were
sleeping. They just say it because they want people to think
they are enigmatic and they can never be like him.”

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 Chapter 8 || Watching movies
and reading books

I pity those actors who say that they don’t like to watch movies and still aspire to

have a career in films.

It is like saying you want to become a software engineer without learning to programme.
As an actor, it is not a recommendation but is a necessity that you watch a lot of movies
and read a lot of books. Even if you are not a good reader there cannot be any excuse for
not watching films.
I won’t tell you why you should watch movies and read books because having bought
this book, I assume you are a reader and intelligent enough to know that you have got to
watch movies to become an actor.
Here I am not going to tell you WHY you should read books or watch movies, here I am
going to tell you HOW you should do that.
When you are watching a film as an audience, you are watching a film for entertainment.
But unfortunately, when you are a part of the film industry as an actor your entire
perspective of watching a film has to change. Now you need to see actors in more details
and how they are performing. Sometimes you will have to watch films again and again just to
know how an actor went inside his role.
In my personal experience, I have found out that a man learns more by watching the
same movie over and over again than by watching all the movies in this world.
As a director, I watch films in chronological order. I pick a director whose films I want
to watch and then finish all his films in one go. It helps me understand his style of direction.
Similarly, you should not just watch a movie and appreciate it what it is, rather if you like an
actor in a particular movie, start watching all his films because that will give you an idea
about his style and also his techniques. You will get to know his favourite styles, how he

42
performs and you will get to know certain movements of his body or some personality traits
of him which he repeats in all his roles.
I have seen nearly every Amitabh Bachchan movie and after watching them all there was
one thing, I figured out that the man is very good with his eyes and never blinks while
delivering dialogue. You will find similar traits in many actors. Amitabh breaks down his
dialogues into several subsections like words and sentences where he emphasizes, tones up
or down a bit them and deliver the words in limited breath with pauses, emphasizing
especially on last words making the dialogue more enhancing. I would call it delivering
dialogues like a punch.
Shahrukh does the same thing. He also plays with his eyes but unlike Amitabh, he often
goes overboard when he is delivering his dialogues by raising his eyebrows and using the
facial muscles way, way too much. He does that by breathing lots of air inside, then he
exhales it very slowly with the dialogues coming out again emphasizing on the last words of
the dialogue to enhance them more. Most of Shahrukh’s films have a climax where the
entire turn of events happens after he delivers a great speech which often makes a great
impact. Unlike films of the 70s where the climax was more physical and involved fighting,
where the hero would destroy the entire villain headquarters, which was much easy. Saying a
dialogue and changing the entire scene of events is much more difficult because it is more
risk-taking and can backfire. If you watch “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge” or “Mohabbatein”
then you will realize that the entire climax is a Shahrukh’s speech. Even in “Pardes”, where a
fight happens between the antagonist and the hero but the real climax is Shahrukh’s dialogue
which changes the course of the movie.
If there are any international actors whose films and acting journey you have to follow
then they are :
Jack Nicholson
Al Pacino
Robert Di Nero
Gene Hackman
Dustin Hoffman
Marlon Brando

Brando and Nicholson are two great actors whom you must follow and try to
understand their acting styles. Other countries too have great actors but none worked on
acting and researched about it the way Americans have done. Acting has existed for many
years but it was America which turned commercial acting into art and one should learn from
them.
There are few actors whom I consider more than just actors. They are not known for
their acting but they are known more for their styles which is an equivalent important factor
that contributes to an actor’s success. Some of my favourite actors who have done this are –
James Spader from Boston Legal.
Charlie Sheen from Two and a half men.
Benedict Cumberbatch from Sherlock
Brad Pitt from Fight Club
Matthew McConaughey from Dallas Cowboys.

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 Leonardo DiCaprio from Titanic.

These actors primarily work because of their great styles.

You might disagree with me here a little bit citing that Mathew and Leonardo are Oscar-
winning actors. Yes, they are, but their style precedes their acting talent.
Watching films of these actors one after another you would be able to notice few
activities that these actors repeat again and again to register their presence on screen.
Making a style statement won’t come easily to you but keep looking for it.
However, there is an easy solution to it – Be yourself.

Now coming to books.

You can learn a lot about acting by just watching a lot of movies of your favourite actors
in chronological order but there are people in this world who have done research in it before
you just to make your job of learning anything easy for you.
Even if you are not a good reader, read these books, even if it takes 1 page a day to
move forward. These books will help you in understanding the art of acting more than
anything else.
Some of the must-read books on acting are -
Audition by Michael Shurtleff
Meisner on Acting by Sanford Meisner
Respect for Acting by Uta Hagen
An Actor Prepares by Konstantin Stanislavski
The art of acting by Stella Adler
Building a Character by Konstantin Stanislavski

Apart from this, you should also read biographies of actors, it will make your life better.
Biographies of nearly every top Hollywood actor has been covered by some journalist. Read
biographies of great talents like Jack Nicholson, Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Bryan
Cranston and any other that you can find which will not only motivate you but will also tell
you that struggle was not easy for any of them. What you must be doing is nothing
compared to what they have gone through and you will understand that they all made it
because they all deserved it. Behind all that glory and money, there was immense amount of
hard work.
We have a very superficial idea about an actor’s struggle. Don’t fall into the scam ideas
of some actor who would tells you a story that he came to his dream city with 50 Rs. in his
pocket or that he was noticed by some director sipping coffee in a café and was cast in a
role. Casting in a café never happens. No one is going to waste their entire project and
millions of bucks on a random guy just because the director thinks he looks good. You
probably will be exploited after being spotted in a cafebut nothing much will happen. But
film role requires qualification and the basic qualification is that you must a little bit of
acting. Yes, there are films in which actors compromise to get roles. I have seen and been
part of films like that, but it is short-lived stardom and never leads to anything.

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“There has been no more destruction of mind that has been
done by negative thinking than any other thought.”

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 Chapter 9 || Cribbing and
Negative Attitude

C an I keep even a little bit of Cribbing and Negative mental attitude?

Absolutely not.
You cannot crib and you cannot complain about each and everything while you are
struggling in Mumbai.
Spend some time in Mumbai and you will realize that no one is happy. Everyone looks
happy on social media but once you are with them personally, they would be a completely
different person.
It will not only crush you but will also devastate you knowing that people have different
personalities in real life, thye are different in professional life and completely different on
social media. You will start questioning the authenticity of people.
People meet other people to click photos for Instagram. They are seen enjoying with
other people so that they can take those photos to social media and take approval of other
people whom they don’t even know but want to tell them how cool their life is.
Don’t get frustrated watching others and how they manage their lives. First it is none of
your business and second, the more you will try to know about other’s lives, the more
frustration and negativity you are going to develop in your life.
You may have heard about this slang called FOMO, heavily used in Urban slang. It
means Fear Of Missing Out. People these days are literally suffering from this mindset. They
constantly live in the fear of missing a lot in life. FOMO brings more negativity in your life
than anything else. Due to FOMO, one feels that if he is doing party enough than his life is
waste, if he is not travelling enough than his life is waste, he is not getting into enough
relationships then his life is waste. My advice – do whatever you want to do and don’t think
about the things you are missing as you will never know about the other side since you were
not there. The truth is that you cannot miss the things you don’t know about. For the same

46
reasons stop invading social media too much as it gives your useless information about other
people and what they are doing.
More than that, negativity will only bring a bad state of mind to you and you will end up
wasting a lot of time thinking about things that won’t take you anywhere.
Spend your time thinking about positive thoughts and instead of getting entangled in
thoughts that does not help you career-wise try to find out ways in which you can actually
meet casting directors and land a role in films.
These are some thoughts that will only bring you down, so if these are occurring in your
mind again and again, it is time for you to start monitoring your thoughts and think positive
as much as you can.

Will I be able to make it or not?

Do I have enough talent?
Will I be a success someday or not?
Why I am not enjoying my life?
Why is life so hard?
Am I the unlucky one?

There will be many pieces of advices that you will receive while you will be trying to find
your place in acting field.
Don’t listen to following advices.
It is not that easy.
Only star kids succeed.
It’s all politics.
Go back, there is nothing for anyone else here.
It is impossible.
I have seen so many people try and fail.
My friend had tried for many years but he couldn’t make it.
Auditions doesn’t do anything.

These are few as there will be many more comments that you will hear but just because
someone else didn’t make it doesn’t make it impossible for you. Remember, you have your
own journey and you have your own path.
The failure of negative people doesn’t make success hard; in fact, it raises your chances
of success as there will be less competition.
So what if no one before you had succeeded the goal you want to achieve, maybe you
will be the first person to do it and show the world a method of achieving it that the world
has never seen.
Most people who are born and brought up in Mumbai definitely have an edge over you
as they know more influential people than you and are more compatible with city ways than
you. They will definitely have more connections than you. Still, it doesn’t matter. There are
nearly 2 crore people living in Mumbai and yet not all of them succeed.
Apart from being lucky there is one thing that you need most while in Mumbai : self-
confidence. If you don’t have that, then anyone an invade in your life and shake your

47
confidence with their negative thinking. The only enemy of self-confidence is doubt and
doubt comes from negative thinking.
I like to call them Negative vampires as they suck all the positive energy and hopes from
you. Save yourself from negative vampires.
I once met a successful actor once and he told me his secret. He told me that when he
arrived in Mumbai he wanted to become a big star. There were people who demotivated
him, told him he won’t be able to make it, that he does not have what it takes to reach at
top, they were negative about everything he was doing. Yet, he told me, that not for a single
moment there was in iota of doubt in him that he was not going to make it. He told me that
inside his mind he had already become a superstar and he had a list of directors and
producers he wanted to work with.
To tell you frankly that actor does not have great acting skills yet he became super
successful. He told me that he thinks that he is the best actor in this world. I asked him
whether that statement isn’t a bit arrogant. He smiled at me and told me that when he came
to Mumbai no one believed in him. No one believed that he could be a good actor. Initially
he worked very hard to get approval of other people and would seek their opinion about his
acting skills. Later he realized that the only person who needed to believe that he is a good
actor is himself and no one else so he started chanting that he is the greatest actor in the
world. He said that he went on set thinking that whatever he is going to do on sets will
overshadow every other actor and he will emerge as scene stealer. He said that he had to
first convince himself that he is a good actor and only then he could convince the world
about it. The faith works inside out, not outside in. Sounds cliched but it is the truth.
Approach every role that you get, small or big in such way that you are the greatest actor
in this world and there is no one who can do it better than you.
The state of mind is the most important thing for an actor.
I personally do not believe that Shahrukh is the best actor in this world, but I am pretty
sure that inside his mind, Shahrukh is already convinced that he is a very good actor. He
thinks very high of himself and that is where his entire confidence comes in.
I once read a story about Amitabh Bachchan where he went to see a shoot during his
struggle days with a friend. The film had Shashi Kapoor as lead actor. Amitabh saw his
acting and said to his friend that he can act better than him. Amitabh converted that belief
of his into a truth. That was the confidence of struggling Amitabh. He believed he was a
better actor.
I am not asking you to be delusional. I am asking you to know about yourself and never
judge yourself on the parameters of other people.
People might call you arrogant, self-praising asshole or what not but do not be deterred
by it because it is this arrogance and self-confidence which will soon turn into reality, if you
will stick to it.
You will create your own reality as you will move along. If you think negative about
yourself, the people will think the same. If you think positive about yourself then people will
think positive about you. Never lose confidence because confidence is the only great asset
with you which will help you in continuing your battle and will help you to reach at the top.

48
 Do not quit under any circumstances. No, it won’t take much time to become successful
if you keep analysing when something goes wrong in your life and work on improving it.
The more work you will do the more successful you will become. If you are still not
successful, then probably you are not working hard enough, work harder. After every failure,
increase the amount of hard work.
There is no definite path to anything. You can become a star while vlogging and you can
also become a star while hosting events and you can also become a star driving
autorickshaws. Don’t listen to shortcuts and don’t listen to someone if they tell you single
headed paths to success, because there isn’t one. There are infinite paths to success but they
all goes through hard work and a persistent will.
And don’t get into the loop of working for money. I have seen more people ruined by
such thoughts than anyone else. Till you become a brand no one needs to pay you for you
dream. It should be your dream initially to come on TV, or to come on big screen and for
that be ready to do anything. Even if that involves working for free. For one to two years,
keep doing random jobs to run your house and work for free as much as you can.
Working for free helps you build your resume, you will be seen more on screen and
people will get to know you more. But apart from the casting director, don’t tell anyone that
you are working for free, instead tell people that you are getting handsome amounts for your
work. If people know that you are working for free you will keep getting free works. It’s not
deceiving, it is working smart.
Offer casting directors that if there is a good role, you will do it for free but tell them
that you would like to get paid if there is a possibility. However, never tell them your
problems. They don’t care about it. The rule is to not listen to negative talks, don’t talk
negative to anyone and never discuss your problems with anyone.
Listen to motivational videos if that helps you, talk to positive motivating people if you
have to or write in diary about your experiences and motivate yourself, but never get
demotivated and never get negative.

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“The entire secret to success can be summed up in one world –
Action.”

50
 Chapter 10 || The Secret

W ell, comes the time when I am going to reveal the secret to you to become a

great movie star.

The secret is – Develop your own Style.

Wait – are you disappointed.

“Yeah, I already knew it, everybody knows it. It is not a secret.”
Well, keep reading.
One day S.D. Burman reached Ashok Kumar’s house for some work. He heard Kishore
Kumar singing in his bathroom in K.L. Sehgal’s voice. When he came out, he praised his
singing abilities. He then told him later that he is a very good singer but he will not have
success if he keeps singing songs in Sehgal’s style. He has to find his own voice and he has
to find his own style. He cannot be loved by audience by mimicking Sehgal. That forced
Kishore Kumar to explore his own style and in 1969 with the release of “Aradhana” Film
songs, he became one of the biggest singers that Indian film industry has ever seen.
Amitabh Bachchan has a distinct style of speaking which resembles UP dialect and he
has a heavy sand gravel voice. You listen to Amitabh’s voice from a distance and without a
doubt you can recognize who it is.
James Spader too has a very distinct style. His style wasn’t present in his earlier works in
movies and TV shows. However, when he gets to play ‘Alan Shore’ in the successful legal
Drama Boston Legal, he gives certain style to the character. During litigations whenever he
would get up, he would first put his tie inside, button his coat and look away from everyone
as if he is imagining what he is going to say and then open his mouth, stares at jury and
starts his speech.

51
 Jack Nicholson usually keeps his head high and eyes down to show his superiority and
uses the clarity of voice and emphasis on words to make an impression. The character he
plays has a dominating streak in them nearly every time.
Charlie Sheen has a distinct style of moving his head, smiling without opening much of
his mouth, excessive use of his hands which corresponds to his dialogues, he always keeps
his hands away from his body which gives an extrovert personality to his character.
Introverts like to close their body in groups while extroverts expand their body in all
directions and take as much pace as they like to take with other people.
Shahrukh Khan has a distinct style of stretching the muscles of his neck and forehead
during emotional scenes to make more impact and it works every time for him. Look at all
the Filmfares he has got.
As I have told you in previous chapters that film acting is not theatre acting.
In theatre acting, you become the character but in film acting you give the audience the
illusion of being someone else but in truth, you always remain you. All you have to do is to
become a different and more stylized version of yourself.
In theatre you sell the character, while in films, you sell yourself.
So, selling a character is getting into the character and trying to become that character
while selling yourself is much more difficult than that.
First you have to find a middle ground between you and the character. Then you have to
find a personality trait of your own that you can use again and again. It can be anything but
it has to be something visually noticeable. It can be as trivial as putting fingers in your hair to
closing your shirt button to putting glasses on the back of your shirt to messaging your
hands on your face.
Why is Abhishek Bachchan not successful?
Because knowingly or unknowingly, he is mimicking his own father and audience could
see his father in him of which they are all already crazy fan of. They already have Amitabh
Bachchan and they don’t want another person that is not him but reminds them of him.
For the same reason, Hritik Roshan is a superstar because no one remembers how his
father, Rakesh Roshan acted. He wasn’t a very successful actor. Most people don’t even
know he was an actor, most think that he had always been a director of films like “Karan
Arjun” and “Kaho na Pyar hai”.
Ranbir Kapoor works, though there are parts of Rishi Kapoor in him but Rishi Kapoor
never had any distinct style of his own for people to admire. That is why Rishi Kapoor had
always been an average actor and could never become a big actor like Amitabh Bachchan or
Vinod Khanna. Most of his successful films were multi starrer.
So, if you are an unsuccessful actor, not massively successful but keep doing odd roles
here and there then I would highly recommend that you develop a signature style of yours
and without letting the director know about it, put it there in every role of yours. So,
whenever people will see you doing the same, they will recall your earlier roles and that is
what you will be remembered for a very long time. It is called a technique of mind mapping
where mind maps one instance to another instance.
Another important secret of becoming a superstar is that in the distant future there has
to be some stand-up comic who can mimic you.
Yes, you heard it right.

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 If someone can mimic you then you have a distinct style and that is what you have to
develop in your acting career.
I once went to a local shop in a village to buy some footwear and I met a huge Salman
Khan Fan who said that he has watched every film of Salman Khan since “Tere Naam”, the
film which made him his biggest fan. He never misses any film of him whether the film is
good or bad.
The question is that why would anyone watch a bad film of an actor multiple times even
when he knows that the story is bad. It is because they are in love with the personality of
that actor, not the film.
Audience who comes to watch the film in India mostly watch the film because they are
in love with the personality of the actor and are not there to watch the film as priority. That
is why even the bad films of Khan trio makes a lot of money.
This is the secret to become a superstar in any country.
Film acting is all about style and very early in your life you have to decide whether you
want to work in industry to get awards or you want a massive amount of money and fame.
You have to choose because the path to both goes through separate journeys.
Confusion is the recipe for chaos.
So many people admire Nasseruddin Shah but despite having all the talent he never
became a superstar. It was because he had always been dwindling between doing a great
character role and a commercial role. He did commercial roles too and I believe that he did
them for money but what he really wanted to do was to do serious roles and then the bigger
problem with him was that he wanted audience to embrace him as he was and start diverting
his interest towards art films rather than commercial films. His confusion to be a great actor
as well as a commercial actor, both at the same time, left him nowhere. He is admired by
many but none of his solo films became blockbuster.
Amitabh is a great actor because he brings his own personality into the characters rather
than becoming the character. He doesn’t care about art films. He always wanted to become a
part of mainstream cinema and this is what he did.
That is why I am against method acting. If you want your name in history books, try
method acting but it won’t take you very far. You will be soon labelled as hard to work with
actor, henceforth, no work later on.
Film is a business. As far as people want to see you, they will hire you in their films but
as soon as people get bore of you, you will extinguish.
Amitabh Bachchan is still surviving because he still brings his own style to his roles
unlike Shahrukh Khan who nowadays he is trying to do futile experiments and trying to
copy the older version of himself. What works for Shahrukh is his style quotient and people
remember him for that.
In the history of cinema, there is no character which is greater than actor. Actors are
more memorable than characters. It is a sad truth but make it work in your favour. Create a
character on screen which no one has seen before and you will be remembered forever. Find
your style and then go bonkers with it.

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“There is not expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid
the real labour of thinking.”

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 CONCLUSION

Even if this book helped you or it didn’t I am pretty sure that there are some methods in
this book which will be useful to you, if you use them properly.
This was not a trick book where I wanted to give you shortcuts for success. There isn’t
any. Hard work is needed no matter what you do but along with hard work, the right mind
set is the most important thing that you must have to make your journey a little bit more
comfortable.
This book is not something that will change your life in one night. Also if you don’t
agree to the rules in this book then it doesn’t mean that the rules mentioned in this book
doesn’t work. Just don’t follow them. There are millions of ways of reaching from A to B.
Remember, at the end it will only be your efforts and your determination that you will
achieve your goals. It is only reaching to your goal that counts. No matter how your journey
was, it will be always be the end goal that will redefine your journey. If you had gone
through a terrible struggle but in the end you become a superstar, when you look back, you
will only see good things.
I know that if a man decides to achieve a goal and sets his mind on it than no power in
this universe can stop him from achieving it, these self-help books just aim to help a person
reach his goal a little faster, that’s it.
Acting is an art and there is no doubt about it but it is also a very lucrative business.
There is no purity is pure art. Every great art has a great price on it; the greater the price, the
purer the art.
Don’t be confused between Independent films, art films or commercial films. A hit film
means that more people went to watch it and a flop film means less people went to watch it.
A film is commercial when more people watch it and it generates more money. More
revenues will give you more work, it is as simple as that.
Don’t quit, keep meeting people, keep giving auditions, and don’t hesitate to use social
media to promote yourself.

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You cannot fail till you keep trying. The day of failure is the
day you stop.

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 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shitiz Srivastava is a filmmaker and writer based in Mumbai.

After completing his graduation as Engineer in Computer Science, he tried doing a job at
Infosys for quite some time before quitting the job to try his luck in film world.
He has directed two films and several shorts films and several ad films. He has written a
book, writes frequently for Quora, Medium, LinkedIn, OpIndia, Amazon Kindle as a
blogger and operates his own blog.
He likes to read books, watch movies, cook food and sing songs.
He can be reached at his personal Email-id Srivastava.shitiz@gmail.com

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 FURTHER READING

Apart from the books listed in chapter 8, here is some more resources for acting.

1. The Golden Rules of Acting By Andy Nyman

2. Surviving Actors Manual By Felicity Jackson
3. Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Acting By A West End
Producer
4. In-Depth Acting By Dee Cannon
5. Acting as a Business By Brian O’Neil
6. "Improvisation for the Theatre" by Viola Spolin
7. Actions: The Actors' Thesaurus by Maggie Lloyd Williams and Marina
Caldarone
8. The Power of the Actor by Ivana Chubbuck
9. No Acting Please by Eric Morris
10. The Actor and the Target by Declan Donnelan
11. The Intent to Live: Achieving Your True Potential as an Actor by Larry Moss
12. A Life in Parts, by Bryan Cranston
13. Acting for the Camera, by Tony Barr
14. Acting in Film: An Actor’s Take on Moviemaking, by Michael Caine
15. Acting: Cut the Crap, Cue the Truth, by Natalie Burt
16. Actor’s Art and Craft: William Esper Teaches the Meisner Technique, by
William Esper and Damon DiMarco
17. Auditioning for Film and TV, by Nancy Bishop
18. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Acting (But Were Afraid to
Ask, Dear), by West End Producer
19. Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre, by Keith Johnstone
20. Self Management for Actors: Getting Down to (Show) Business, by Bonnie
Gillespie
21. The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit, by Bella Merlin

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22. The Lee Strasberg Notes, by Lola Cohen
23. The Right to Speak: Working with the Voice, by Patsy Rodenburg
24. The Rules of Acting, by Michael Simkins
25. To the Actor: On the Technique of Acting, by Michael Chekhov
26. Why is That So Funny?: A Practical Exploration of Physical Comedy, by John
Wright
27. Year of the King, by Antony Sher

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 MUST WATCH MOVIES
FOR ACTORS

1. The Godfather 26. Jab we met

2. Deewar 27. Sholay
3. Ram aur Shyam 28. Manichithrathazhu
4. Walk the line 29. Maqbool
5. Butch Cassidy and Sundance 30. Hera pheri
Kid 31. Anand
6. My Left Foot 32. Baazigar
7. The silence of the Lambs 33. Dhruvam
8. Agneepath 34. Kireedam
9. Satya 35. Raging bull
10. Nayakan 36. Midnight Cowboy
11. Baasha 37. Doga day afternoon
12. Iruvar 38. One the waterfront
13. Vanaprastham 39. Lawrence of Arabia
14. The dark Knight 40. The sopranos
15. One flew over the cuckoo’s nest 41. Inglorious bastards
16. There will be blood 42. Seven samurai
17. Taxi driver 43. Schindler’s list
18. Forrest Gump 44. The departed
19. Scarface 45. Ikiru
20. Dallas buyer’s club 46. Rainman
21. The wolf of wall street 47. A beautiful mind
22. Haasil 48. The shining
23. Swades 49. A few good men
24. Udaan 50. Pulp fiction
25. Omkara

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