Diljit Dosanjh: Hardly any time to sulk over a film's failure

Diljit Dosanjh

Diljit Dosanjh says the shelf life of a film today does not last more than a weekend and the actors have also become fast paced to get over their failures. His debut Hindi film "Udta Punjab" got an overwhelming response from audience but his next release "Phillauri" failed to taste success at the box office. Asked how much does the success or failure of a film drive what he signs next, Dosanjh said everything is so fast today, there is hardly any time to sulk.

"The life of a film today is just a weekend. If it's a very good film, it'll last a week. So our life is so fast that it barely matters," he told PTI. "Your projects get ready, you start work on it. Obviously, if people don't like something you've worked hard for, it hurts. But it isn't that one becomes 'Devdas' after that," he said. Staying unfazed with both success and failure of a film and continuing to put his best foot forward, Dosanjh feels one should not consider the ups and downs in work as "struggle." "If you ask me what is 'struggle', I'd say it depends on what you term it.

If it's a part of your job, you shouldn't call it a struggle. It's your job. If you say 'I worked very hard and then I reached here', I mean, it was your job, you have to work hard for it!" he said. The actor-singer, known to be extremely shy and reserved on sets, works diligently on his characters - be it the role of a cop in "Udta Punjab" or a singer in "Phillauri". He said the glamour of Bollywood does not sway him much as he has seen something similar even in Punjab. "The glamour which Bollywood has even we have in our Punjabi industry. We have seen that back home.

How to evade this, be normal around it is something which all artistes follow. It's easy to be normal," Dosanjh said. "When the camera is on, you should be on too, when the camera is off you should go off. This helps me a lot. If I'm on long after the camera is off, everything will go wrong," he added. The actor, though, is aware that some of his co-stars might find this behaviour amusing. "Some co-stars do ask me, if everything is ok (because I'm not talking) but I don't take stress at all. Some might even feel bad due to this but my intention is never to hurt anyone.

If they start feeling bad on their own, then it's not my fault!" he quipped. Dosanjh is now ready with his third Hindi film, a comedy, "Welcome to New York", starring Sonakshi Sinha. The film, produced by Vashu Bhagnani, also features Bollywood stars, including Karan Johar, Riteish Deshmukh, Lara Dutta among others. "Welcome to New York" marks his first on-screen pairing with Sinha and the 34-year-old actor found 'no starry tantrums' a common link between her and his previous female co-stars, Anushka Sharma and Kareena Kapoor Khan.

"A common thing which I liked about all of them was, I used to think 'these are big superstars, don't know what aura they will have' but they were all very normal. Kareena, Anushka and even Sonakshi too didn't have any 'air' regarding their celebrity status," he said. "Welcome to New York" is scheduled to release on February 23.

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