'Love Sitara' star Rajeev Siddhartha: Sometimes people who have a lot of backing are favoured

Siddhartha on breaking stereotypes and embracing versatility in Love Sitara and Honeymoon Photographer

With more than a decade in the industry, Rajeev Siddhartha feels he is finally getting his due, “especially since filmmakers like Prakash Jha signed me for stories like Aashram”. While he has felt welcomed, the actor admits that the journey has not been easy. “Of course, there are issues where you are contending against the tide. Sometimes, [people] who have a lot of backing or are favoured get the parts [you know you could] do well, but I’ve always known that was part of the game. So, I don’t hold it too hard,” says the actor, who has had a great week with two releases—Love Sitara and Honeymoon Photographer.

Directed by Vandana Kataria, Love Sitara is a simple slice-of-life story with a tinge of relatable drama that comes with dysfunctional families. While Siddhartha practised for months to perfect his culinary skills as a chef, it was the emotional turmoil of the character that took more time to understand and portray. His character is often reprimanded for not taking on a stereotypical masculine role to earn his livelihood, but Siddhartha says it was the opposite in real life. “I have been fortunate to grow up in a family where stereotypical patriarchy was never [forced on me]. I never felt the need to show off my manliness, but I cannot take credit for it. 

My parents and the people around me [never behaved that way]. I am not blind; it obviously exists in society. And people have had to suffer because of it. In some families, women are dominated by weak men because they have been conditioned to behave in a certain way. People in my life, both men and women, have all been confident in their skin and secure. I feel I attract these kinds of roles because I am built that way in real life too,” says the actor, adding that insecure people cannot help but put others into boxes with labels.

While he plays a green flag in Love Sitara, Siddhartha portrays the antagonist in Honeymoon Photographer. “I had great fun playing the bad guy,” he says, adding that it was “liberating” to play a character who could break things and beat people up for a change.

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