Brut India
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“Surviving in Mumbai is not easy.” From being fat-shamed in childhood to making a place in Bollywood, Varun Sood opened up about his struggles.

📹: Digital Commentary
Transcript
00:00Coming to Delhi, facing all the bullying all of a sudden
00:03traumatized me in a way.
00:04Being scared as children, we started stammering a lot.
00:06Yeah, this stammering was actually there till the audition for Roadies.
00:09I'm going to transform myself.
00:10If I'm eating food in the morning, I'll eat cornflakes at night.
00:20Half fact for you.
00:21I was extremely fat.
00:23I was... I can show you a photo.
00:25Yeah.
00:26No one believes it.
00:26Can we zoom in?
00:27Yeah, no one will believe this.
00:29I'll show you a photo.
00:32This was me in class 10.
00:34Yeah.
00:34I was very overweight.
00:35Yeah.
00:36And it started off at a very young age.
00:39Both me and my sister were very overweight.
00:41Yeah.
00:42And we were in Andamans first.
00:44So, I was fine till Andamans.
00:45I was fine till class 3.
00:47And when I shifted to Delhi in class 4,
00:49there was a big city, different people,
00:52more confidence in them.
00:53Yeah.
00:54So, because of that fear, I didn't go out to play.
00:56I didn't talk to people.
00:58And we used to get bullied a lot in school.
01:00Both me and my sisters were very quiet children.
01:05And because of being scared as children,
01:07we started stammering a lot.
01:08Both me and my sister.
01:10And it was extremely tough for us to make friends at that point.
01:15But coming to Delhi, facing all the bullying all of a sudden
01:18traumatized me in a way
01:19where I didn't want to meet anybody or talk to anybody.
01:22My sister was my friend.
01:23The overweight kids with us were our friends.
01:26During class 10, I got a summer vacation.
01:28And I said, you know what?
01:30This time when I go to school,
01:32I'm going to transform myself.
01:33And I'm going to be a person that they have never seen.
01:37No, actually during class 11.
01:39So, I transformed myself in a way where
01:42I was lean, I was ripped,
01:44and I was also 7 inches longer.
01:46And I made a few friends over there
01:48who were very protective of me
01:49and my stammering problem and my sister.
01:53So, I think till 10th, it was really difficult for me.
01:57And then in class 11, I made such friends
01:59that they are still my friends.
02:00And they've kind of protected me in a certain way.
02:02So, how long did this stammering go on?
02:04This stammering was actually until the audition for Roadies.
02:08And I didn't talk to the camera a lot then.
02:10I still remember when I had VDs.
02:13VDs are basically after your tasks,
02:16you sit at one place and talk to the camera.
02:18So, the producer who used to sit with me,
02:21Gharam wasn't here.
02:23She used to tell me very sweetly,
02:24you take your time with it.
02:25You don't have to worry.
02:26I know that you have a problem.
02:27Ranvijay taught me a lot of techniques to get over it.
02:30And I think by the time I was 21,
02:32I had kind of got rid of everything.
02:35I went to a speech therapist to get it fixed.
02:39I used to practice all day.
02:41I said, if I want to make it even as a video jockey,
02:44it's their job to talk.
02:46And if I keep stammering, then who will hire me?
02:48So, I really worked on myself.
02:49And I think by the time I was 21, I was fine.
02:52When I was 21, I came to Mumbai.
02:55And I was signed with MTV as a VJ
02:57for a certain amount of time.
02:58And I used to get a salary with them.
03:01I used to get a particular salary.
03:03Not great.
03:04It was small.
03:05I needed exposure. I had to learn.
03:07And being a VJ with MTV was a big deal for me.
03:10Even in Delhi, I was getting a good salary.
03:12When I came to Bombay, I was losing my rent.
03:15Then I had to see how I would eat,
03:17how I would travel.
03:18If I had a shoot here, I would have to buy clothes
03:20because I didn't even have a service then.
03:23I had to arrange for makeup.
03:24Or I had to get makeup done.
03:26Surviving in Mumbai is not easy like that.
03:28Right, right.
03:29So, I used to get an X amount.
03:31And I think 60% of it used to go to rent.
03:36Even for food, I used to figure it out.
03:38If I'm eating food in the morning,
03:39then I'll eat cornflakes at night.