Being a Gujarati, the festive season is not just about the festival of lights but also about new beginnings for Vishal Jethwa. Revelling in the love for his recent release Homebound, the actor insists the Gujarati New Year tomorrow brings in a lot of hope for him. “This year’s Diwali and New Year has brought in a lot of growth for me, and it has been quite an important year. A lot of things have changed since last year, including my career graph and also me as a person. My confidence has also improved a lot. I will take all this confidence into the next year.”
Recalling his childhood excitement for the festivities, Vishal Jethwa shares, “I will never be able to compare my childhood excitement for any festival with today’s time. There was a different craziness in me back then. I used to love bursting crackers, and I used to save some for the next morning of the New Year. I used to get up at 3 or 4am with my mom and ask her to come with me to burst crackers. This is a childhood memory that I cherish. Once someone stole my crackers, and I fell sick because of that.”
The season was also about fashion for him, including one time when actor Hrithik Roshan served as his inspiration. “I used to love buying new colourful clothes, it was like a tradition. During my childhood. Hrithik Roshan’s clothes got very popular from Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai (2000). So, I insisted on buying those clothes. They used to give glasses with the wardrobe and it came in yellow or red. I bought the yellow one and I remember wearing it for one Diwali. It looked very fascinating and we used to roam around thinking that we were Hrithik Roshan,” he laughs.
Today, Vishal has access to the biggest designers, but there is something amiss. “I am wearing such big designer clothes, but I miss that feeling when we used to be stubborn and push our parents in matters of money to buy clothes. That happiness is difficult to come by now. We have grown up in a time when the fun of festivals was something else,” he asserts.
So, what does he wish for this new year to come? “I want to get the lead role in (filmmaker) Sanjay Leela Bhansali sir’s film. I have wanted this for a long time and if this happens, this new year is going to be something else. Homebound has brought a lot of things for me. Not just career-wise, but it led to my debut in the fashion industry. I got to travel so much internationally because of it too. I have changed as a person and that too positively in every aspect. I also want to be able to sustain the position I am in. Even if I don’t go much higher, I don’t want to fall atleast. Kareena Kapoor ma’am had one said, ‘It is still easy to be on the top, but very difficult to sustain there’,” he ends.
