Exclusive! Rohit Roy: My daughter brought my life back on track

Actor Rohit Roy began his career on the small screen with a bang .... years ago. However, the actor admits that the overnight stardom diverted his focus from his craft. In a conversation with us, he talks about how his career took a dip, exploring the OTT platform and what he thinks about his brother Ronit Roy’s work. Excerpts:

Rohit became a household name after the success of his first show, Swabhimaan. However, he says, focusing on the overnight success took a toll on his career. “Obviously I was being treated like a star so I got sucked into that whole game. If I had focused on my art more than this, I would have been at a different place. I was working very hard but I was not focused,” he adds.

He says that it was his daughter Kiara who brought him back to reality. "When my daughter was born, I didn’t want to do anything remotely embarrassing to her. I didn’t want to leave her a legacy of embarrassment! I always want my daughter to be proud of what I have done. So that was the time when I decided that every piece of work that I put out has to be of a certain calibre and standing. It was not about success or failure for me then, it was about Rohit has done a good job. So I have been very particular about what work I have done in the past 7-8 years. My daughter has a large part to play in my conversion into becoming a more focused human being,” he shares.

He further adds, “My daughter is my biggest critic today. Right from the clothes I wear to the way I conduct myself. I cannot even put out a picture on Instagram without her approving it. So yes I respect that because I think she is a lot savvier than I am. I am glad to take her advice because it works for me.”

In a career spanning over 25 years, Rohit has seen his fair share of success and failures. He credits his mother for always keeping him grounded and honest. “I have always been honest about my standing in the industry. I have always said that I am an outsider. Whatever little I have achieved and lost is all my own. If I don’t own up to everything that I do, then I am not half the man my parents would want me to be.”

Talking about his daughter’s selection in Brown University, an Ivy League college, he says, “We knew that she would go to a good college but we were not prepared for Brown. So obviously I had not made provisions. The tuition fee of an Ivy League college is also quite something. I have now learnt to save.”

His brother, Ronit Roy has made a mark in the television industry, and is now re-entering the space with a new show. Rohit feels that his elder brother has evolved as an actor. He says, “Ronit is doing a television show after so long, and I think his presence will make the show richer. He is an actor of substance. I am not saying this because he is a brother or a star but because he is a consummate actor.”

Of late, Rohit has been a part of many OTT projects with offbeat subjects. He believes that the content available on television is limited and even films have not been particularly forthcoming in terms of issue-based subjects. On the other hand, the reach of OTT is international. He adds, “As an actor, with these OTT projects one can push the envelope. Topics which were alien to us can now be worked on. Ram Gopal Varma had once correctly said that the days of Sholay are gone. As actors we get to do so many different things. There is nothing that binds us anymore.”