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Interview

Sunaina on Duggu

Published On: 2012-06-14

Author: unknown

Media Link:

Oh Brother!



 

Source: Filmfare

Typed by Taniya
 




Up, Close and Personal. Sunaina on Bhai Hrithik 



 

She has the same brandy eyes which have mesmerized the nation. Sunaina, Hrithik's elder sister and confidant, is the one who knows him better than anyone else. Sunaina is 29, Hrithik 27. And from childhood until now, they’ve shared their closely-guarded secrets. Here, then, is a straight-from the heart Hrithik Roshan story…as told by sister Sunaina.


“My earliest memory of Hrithik (Dugu) is of him breaking my spectacles. Though he’s two years younger than me, he would constantly bully me. He was a very mischievous child, he would always get thrashed at home. He was a poor eater. Even now, dad has to constantly scold him to eat his meals. 


“God, he was so thin, but he’d be like Superman when it came to bullying me. My mother was very young when we were born. She’d be in tears when she saw us fighting. She just couldn’t cope up with us.


“We grew up, the physical fights stopped. Dad was extremely conservative as far as I was concerned. I wasn’t allowed late night outings unless I was accompanied by Dugu. Whenever I’d ask Dugu to come with me to a friend’s party he’d play hard to get. After much persuasion, he’d agree saying, ‘Okay I’ll come along but you have to give me this or that.’


“We have several common friends. Dugu is an absolute introvert. To date, his best friends are the same guys he’s known since second standard at school. He still hangs out with Kunal, Sippy, Anuraag, and Uday Chopra. I’m just the opposite, I’m always making new friends. Dugu always asks me, ‘Didi, how can you make friends so easily?’


“There was a stage in life when I would talk non-stop with boys on the phone. Dugu was so protective… when he got to know there was a guy on the line, he’d threaten me saying, ‘Didi disconnect… or else I’ll tell Daddy.’ Dugu and I became really close only after he started dating Sussanne. Till then there were no serious girlfriends. He’d confide in me about Sussanne. Dugu, she and I were a happy threesome, with me being the go-between. Dugu would constantly ask me what gifts to give Sussanne. And Sussanne would try to find out more about my brother’s likes and dislikes.


“Duggu and I are total romantics. We like doing these cute, cute little gestures. Dugu always wants to send Sussanne flowers, cards and gifts. Hrithik is a one-woman man. When I hear his name linked with others, I just laugh off the rumors. Dugu is too much in love with Sussanne to care about any other woman.


“Everyone thinks Sussanne is lucky to have married Dugu. I personally think, it’s the other way around. She has prayed hard for Duggu’s success.


“Sussanne loves sweets. But she had taken a vow the day Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai was launched that she would give up sweets till its release. Dugu was so touched.


“The day the movie was declared a success, he called me, asked me to take money from the office and buy the best chocolates for her. He also wanted to get a variety of desserts and surprise Sussanne.


“I respect my parents because they’ve never ever brought up the subject of Sussanne being a Muslim. When they realized Dugu was serious about her, they gave him their blessings. Daddy just wanted Dugu and me to marry at the right age… and inherit the right values.


“Dugu has a bad temper. Right now he’s very very possessive about his new Jaguar. If either Sussanne or I try to drive it, he flips his lid. He takes us out for a spin in it but no one is allowed to drive the Jaguar. None of us even has the himmat to touch it.


“My brother doesn’t cry very easily. Of course he’s sensitive but he doesn’t show his emotions. I got married in 1993. A couple of days after I’d moved into my in-laws’ home in Versova, Dugu walked into my room at our parents’ home. He saw that it was spic-‘n-span but empty and burst into tears. When I was around, the room would be cluttered, the bathroom a mess. He realized I wasn’t going to be around there and he was miserable.


“Dugu has always been home for raksha-bandhan. Except for the year when he was with daddy in South Africa for the shooting of Karobar. He wouldn’t give me lavish gifts. In fact, he was usually kadka, he’d borrow money from mummy. Now I think he borrows it from Sussanne. Dud’s no good with money.


“For his shaadi, he surprised me by saying, ‘Didi, please buy whatever clothes and jewellery you want. Don’t look at the price-tags. I can afford to buy you anything you want. Tomorrow things may not be the same. So let me spoil you when I can.’ I know Dugu always dreamt of having a church wedding. Since he didn’t have one, guess what he did? The two of us were driving to the wedding venue together. In the car I found him talking to himself. I was wondering what he was mumbling. After the pheras, he put sindoor in Sussanne’s maang, and then as if he were at a church reception, Dugu gave this most beautiful speech in front of the guests, declaring his feelings for his bride. It was sooo romantic. I said to myself, ‘God! I wish I’d married someone that romantic!’


“I always knew Dugu wanted to be an actor. He’s told me this when we were kids. I didn’t squeak about this to my parents then. My parents wanted him to go to university abroad for his post-graduation after he finished B.Com from Sydneham College. Dugu refused to go abroad because he knew he wanted to join films. He felt it was ridiculous to waste dad’s hard-earned money at a foreign university because ultimately he knew he’d become an actor.


“Dugu and I’ve always been close to our mother. We were petrified of dad who could be very strict. As teenagers he didn’t spoil us with designer wear and cars. Neither were we allowed to join in at any of the parties in our home. We had to stay in our bedroom. Daddy felt we should do the right thing. He didn’t even allow us to stay up late. He’s constantly say, ‘Work for your living… things that come easily, go easily.’


“Today dad is a different man. We’re more open with him. I also see a gleam in his eye when he looks at Dugu. He’s so proud that my brother’s a big star. Believe me, Dugu deserves his success. He’s so conscientious. Even if he comes home at 11 p.m. he still goes to Uday’s gym for a work-out. If he has a tough scene the next day, he skips going out for a dinner or a party.


“In recent times the only occasion when I’ve seen Dugu let his hair down was when we went to the Athena restaurant after an awards function. Later we went to Fire And Ice and Dugu danced non-stop for two hours. The best part of the evening was the fact that no one knew Hrithik Roshan was at the disco. So he wasn’t mobbed.


“Dugu’s excellent with kids. I love to see him interact with my four-and-a-half-year-old daughter Suranika. She dotes on him. But her favorite actor is Salman Khan. When Salman met her, he told me, ‘Thank God at least one kid likes me more than Hrithik Roshan.’ Dugu is also very good with Eshaan, the son of my chacha Rajesh Roshan. I’m sure Dugu will make an excellent father. 


“My father was extremely conservative with me, forbidding me to even wear lipstick till I got married. But dad’s very liberal with my daughter Suranika. She has the Roshan genes, I think she’ll be an actress when she grows up. Dad always tells her, ‘Beta, Hrithik mama will make a movie with you after 15 years.’ Incidentally, I’m sure Hrithik will make a good director. Daddy was so pleased with the promos of Koyla which Hrithik had made on his own.


“It’s said Hrithik’s success has gone to the Roshan’s heads. That’s wrong. We were all born Roshan’s, we’ve seen fame before. I won’t deny that I’m basking in my brother’s success today but that’s because we’ve been through ups and downs together.


“There were certain people who would ignore me earlier. All of a sudden they’re keen to become friends with me because Dugu is a major star. Tomorrow if Dugu has a couple of flops, they’ll vanish into thin air.


“We Roshans are extremely close-knit. I shudder when I think of the ordeal we lived through when dad was shot at on January 21 last year. It was my birthday on January 22. Hrithik and Sussanne still ordered a cake and flowers for me. They wanted things to be normal. I refused to cut the cake but Dugu coaxed me saying, ‘Didi you should be happy. The best gift you’ve got this year is the fact that Dad’s alive.’


“When Daddy underwent a bypass operation on January 26, Dugu was shooting for Mission Kashmir. He didn’t cancel the shooting because he didn’t want the producer to suffer a loss. He has seen Dad suffer when actors don’t turn up for shootings. He’ll never be insensitive with his producers. But after pack-up he rushed to the hospital and stayed up all night nursing dad.


“I loved Hrithik in Fiza and Mission Kashmir. He was brilliant. I’m not the kind who cries in a movie, so I didn’t cry when he died in Fiza. But I remember I’d cried my eyes out when he died in Bhagwan Dada.


“When I saw Dugu in Kaho Naa… I didn’t think he was acting. He was the way he is in real life. I felt he was imitating Daddy.


“Recently I saw a song from Rohan Kumar’s Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage. Dugu has improved hundred-fold as an actor. He’s so good.


“Dugu is not my favorite actor. I’ve been a fan of Sanjay Dutt since his Rocky days.


“Dugu is very chilled out with me these days. I share all my secrets with Sussanne and him. As a woman I understand Sussanne’s point of view. I know what it’s like to be a daughter-in-law. I always tell mom that we must always side with Sussanne. Just because Dugu is my brother, he can’t always be right.


“When Sussanne married Dugu I told her, ‘Let’s continue being friends. Let’s not get into this sister-in-law business.’ Because the moment the word in-law comes into a relationship, it becomes complicated. 


“I want Dugu to do a comedy film. His sense of comic timing is perfect. You can also fool him very easily. Sussanne calls him Bholenath because he’s a simpleton. On April 1, I fooled him saying, ‘Dugu, there’s a very bad photograph of yours in the Times of India.’ Dugs jumped out of bed and came rushing to see the paper. That’s when I burst out laughing. He realized I’d played a prank on him.


“I admire the fact that Dugu married Sussanne only after he became a star. He always wanted to stand on his own feet so he could support his wife. Hrithik’s dead against taking things from my parents. On his 21st birthday, my parents gifted him a Maruti 1000. Instead of driving off in it, like most other boys would have, he picked up a fight with my dad, saying, ‘Don’t spoil me.’


“We hardly fight anymore. Of course he’s constantly telling me to lose weight. And he also orders me to make him his favorite cheesecake and gulab jamuns. That’s Duggu, that’s my brother.”