Siddharth Arora aka Vaibhav of Mukti Bandhan graduated from Delhi University and then did his MBA. Arora came to Mumbai and worked with a bank for two years whilst he also did some theatre. Like many such actors he too soon ‘graduated’ to television. Arora says he always wanted to act and hence took the plunge regardless of being in a well paying job with a leading bank. Tellychakkar talks to him about his journey from Varanasi to Mumbai and much more. You had a job with a bank why did you choose to act? I always wanted to get into acting but I wasn’t confident enough. Apart from that I did not even want to give up a well paying job. You need to have some struggle period and I had mine but I took a bold step because I thought we live only once so why not do what I love doing. How has acting been so far? It’s been good with the Mukti Bandhan team as the best part is that we all gel well. It is also because we have all been together since the inception of the show. It’s been five months now and it’s been a beautiful experience and a beautiful journey with the team. We have a party time most of the time. My family is not in Mumbai so when I go on the sets that becomes my family. It must be a different experience since people have started recognising you? It’s another thing that fans recognise guys more than the girls and hence a lot of people come up to me. Once I went to Haji Ali and there were a lot of people and also a few local photographers. These photographers asked me to stand there saying that if I waited for some more time they would make some more money since people would want to be photographed with me. (Laughs). Besides acting what else do you enjoy? Acting is what I love doing but cricket is my passion. I also dabble in writing and am planning to write a novel which I have already started. It is a mix of my experience and imagination. It will be complete in six or eight months and I plan to release it on a very big scale. Apart from this I am a lot into sports. I love playing cricket, pool, billiards, soccer, badminton. I also love gyming. I go gyming at least five to six times a week. Will you always want to do television? If anybody tells you their dream is to only do television they would be lying. Since my childhood I have seen movies and I want to be a part of them. But for newcomers its not that easy and there has to be a medium for you to reach to the top. So even I want to do movies but I do not know when, how and where. But it is my dream. Let us see how it goes. Is television only a leg-up for actors? It definitely prepares an actor for the big screen. Very often you get the script just ten minutes before the shot. This helps you improve your memory and also go to the next level. I feel TV is a perfect training ground for actors. You are known to be a big cricket fan. Yes, I love cricket. I can watch it 24x7. I love Sachin and Rahul Dravid. Earlier Bollywood was the ultimate God but now it is cricket for people fear to even release movies during cricket seasons. Cricket is the ultimate passion in our country and Bollywood comes later. Had I known that earlier I would have been a cricketer and not an actor! Cricket has more money too. Tell us some of your best childhood memories. I did bit of my schooling in Scindia School which was a boarding in Gwalior where I studied for three years. Most of the people in the industry are from that school including the Khan brothers – Salman, Arbaaz and Sohail. It was only after I came back to Varanasi that I began to set some records. I had a record of writing the maximum number of apology letters. I was also suspended from my school once. But I have got the all rounder award for two consecutive years. I was good in studies too. I think those were the best years. Mukti Bandhan took quite some time to pick up as far as the TRPs are concerned. In fact Phulwa that launched during the same time did far better. Comment. There wasn’t a huge difference but there was some difference because Mukti Bandhan is an urban show and Phulwa is a rural based show and the TRP mechanism is more inclined towards rural areas. Also considering the fact that lots of rural people watch television it gained popularity. But a lot of people are watching Mukti Bandhan as well and it is popular. Its contemporary and it’s the world where you and I live. So maybe because it’s bold it will take time to pick up. I also feel it’s an audacious step taken by the production house and the channel to get in a show that is different from the other shows. And as we know anything different takes time to catch on. But people do watch the repeat telecast at midnight but unfortunately TRPs are not counted for a repeat. And the people that watch the show during this time are the urban audience. There were rumours of the show going off-air. Comment Nothing of that sort. The production house is happy and the channel is happy. Why has the story line deviated from the novel on which it is based? It’s definitely inspired from the novel but a little change has to be made to fill the appetite of the audience. In that case it’s good that the story has changed as your character dies in the novel… I am happy. Actually I knew in the beginning that my character would die but I wanted to do good work till I was on the show. So is your character going to live for now? Nothing is confirmed. But as of now I am very much a part of Mukti Bandhan. What kind of a show would you like to take up next? I would love to do a comedy show something like Taarak Mehta because I have a good sense of humour. What about your personal life? Are you seeing somebody? Not at present because I am too busy and one needs time to date. I am going around with my work!