Bollywood Desk: Actor Kranti Prakash Jha, much like his MS Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016) co-star Sushant Singh Rajput, was a rank outsider in the film industry. And coincidently, both came from the same city — Patna, and that’s all the more a reason why Jha is still in shock, not believing that his on-screen ‘friend’ is no more.“I’m in shock, along with my family. I wish that the on-screen friendship converted into real life one, too. I wish I could have become his 3 am friend,” a heartbroken Jha tells us.The actor shares that he met Rajput a couple of times post the film released in 2016, and the fact that they both belonged to the same city, they connected on a different level.
“I’ve lost one of my own. I can’t figure what happened. He was such a positive, loving person, who loved life. We did the smallest of things while shooting the film, from eating samosa, to talking about physics and metaphysics,” recalls Jha.He then poses a poignant question and offers an advice for aspirants wanting to make it big in Bollywood.“Does success guarantee happiness? I don’t think so. People who’re after success like crazy, if it isn’t there, those two friends will always be — your parents, no one else. Life’s precious, you don’t have the right. This body belongs to so many people,” says the 35-year-old.Jha, who has starred in projects such as the web series Raktanchal and also played the lead in TV show Swami Ramdev: Ek Sangharsh, has struggled his way, and had his share of setbacks, too. From his experience, he says it isn’t fair to call Bollywood a ‘dream land’.“It has to be within, not in the outside world. I take such questions in a very spiritual way. You talk about any field, nepotism is there. I’ve also had my hand, something must have happened, where I knew someone, who knew someone. People should remember what Alexander said — keep my hand out of the coffin so people should know they come and go empty handed. It has to be beautiful within yourself,” Jha muses.