“They just started bashing me left, right and centre…” Actor Shantanu Maheshwari shared some of his unpleasant audition experiences. He was at the Cannes Film Festival to unveil the poster of his new film, Love in Vietnam. Brut is the official media partner for Cannes Film Festival 2024. #Cannes2024
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00:00People called me for audition and they just bashed me.
00:03When I started dancing, people didn't believe I could act.
00:06When I started acting, people couldn't believe that I can dance.
00:09Hi, this is Shantanu Maheshwari for Brute.
00:14Shantanu, talk to me about how does it feel like to be at Cannes?
00:18It feels amazing. It's a surreal feeling.
00:20I never imagined to be here actually.
00:23It's a work opportunity as well. So that's the best thing I feel.
00:26Because I always wanted to visit these festivals
00:29not just for experience but for my work.
00:32I'm really, really happy, excited, nervous also.
00:37What are some of the early challenges that you faced in your career?
00:41When I started dancing, people didn't believe I could act.
00:43When I started acting, people couldn't believe that I can dance.
00:47So that whole thing of balancing it out.
00:50You know, when you're acting, you don't want to be stereotyped.
00:54It took a lot of time, you know.
00:55So for me to break that mould and people to accept me
00:59as an actor as well.
01:01Like you said, people didn't really take you seriously as an actor
01:04because they thought, you know, he's a dancer.
01:06Yeah.
01:07Did you face any rejections?
01:09Is there any one role that you really wanted that you lost out on
01:12because of the perception about you?
01:14Not something of this sort but something...
01:17People used to call me.
01:18I mean, there was this very harsh experience that I had
01:20where people called me for audition and they just bashed me.
01:25You know, and they bashed the fact that I come from TV background.
01:29So they were like, you guys don't know how to act and this and that.
01:32And I was like, I was being very polite because I was very nervous.
01:35It was a movie audition.
01:37And I asked them that what am I doing wrong?
01:40You tell me so that I can improve and I can give another take
01:43or two takes, whatever, you know.
01:45I'm here, I don't have any problem.
01:47But they just started bashing me left, right and centre.
01:50And later on, I realised that that's just...
01:52It was just not the right way to deal with it.
01:54I mean, just derogating TV personalities for no reason.
01:59And I was a bit famous because of my first show, D3.
02:01So it didn't hit me on my ego, I would say.
02:05But it's just that these kind of incidents make a scar for life.
02:09So it was just hard to recover from it.
02:12And what's been your weirdest audition till date?
02:14It was for an ad.
02:16And there was this agent who had asked me to go and give the audition for it.
02:21And you know, when generally you go for an ad audition,
02:24you are asked fit, not fit types, you know.
02:27So I entered and he said, you're not fit.
02:31And I bashed at my agent saying that you asked me to go
02:36and if I was not fit, why did you ask me to go?
02:38You know, these kind of discussions I was having.
02:39And he showed me the fact that it was my picture
02:43that was the reference picture for the guy.
02:45So it was so weird that my picture was there as the reference guy.
02:50And when I went, they said that you are unfit for this role.
02:54So that was very funny.