“Apne gusse ko paalna seekh,” is not just a dialogue from Sunny Deol’s Ghatak (1996), but a saying that actor Lakshya swears by. He tells us the line stayed with him as he waited years for his film career to take off.
Today, time is on his side — he is the lead of Aryan Khan’s maiden directorial venture, The Ba***ds of Bollywood. “My life has always been such. Mujhe har cheez rulake milti hai. But I feel if [something comes] quick, it doesn’t last. If you work hard and sincerely on something for a long time, it works out,” says the actor.
Over the last two years, Lakshya and his co-stars Raghav Juyal, Sahher Bambba, and Anya Singh waited for their moment in the sun as they shot for the Netflix series. It wasn’t easy. Lakshya recalls, “People used to say, ‘Tumhara serial kab aayega?’ But we were aware that what we were making would take time. Aryan has taken his time in writing, shooting, and editing it.”
(From left) Lakshya and Anya Singh in the series
The patience has paid off as is the most anticipated OTT show in India right now. All eyes are on the series, and more importantly, on the man behind it. Having worked with Shah Rukh Khan’s elder son, Lakshya says Aryan shattered all the perceptions he had of a star kid. “You have read about star kids and seen them on pap pages. All of that perception was broken the first day I met him. He speaks and thinks the way Raghav, Anya, Sahher and I do. He speaks in Hindi. He knows about the discomfort of life because of what he went through. So, he was compassionate. He knew we were all outsiders, and was sensitive about where we were coming from. His beard and hair would grow, and he wouldn’t cut it [because he was focused on the show], and then out of the blue, he would cut all his hair. Nothing about him said that he is a star kid. We used to say, ‘Yeh toh humare jaisa ladka hai’.”
Lakshya remembers how respectfully met his parents at the première of Kill (2023). “He touched my father’s feet. My dad was in awe of him and said, ‘This is Shah Rukh Khan’s son? Tu kabhi mere paer nahin chhoota!’” What was also noteworthy to Lakshya was the director’s ability to blend with his surroundings. “He can be a star kid with his friends, and then he can become like us as well. He knew both worlds very well.”