Since he burst onto the big screen in 2000 – with female viewers reportedly fainting in his presence – Hrithik Roshan has become one of Bollywood’s most bankable stars. And the fan mail hasn’t stopped flowing, from India and abroad.
His light eyes and bulging muscles have already won the attention of one Hollywood A-lister, the Twilight star Kristen Stewart, who has said she would "love" to work with him.
But with his new big film Bang Bang! now in cinemas, the 40-year-old seems more concerned than flattered by the attention.
“I wish I could help my fans to understand that obsession and possession are not going to fill them up,” he says. “They have to find ways to be independent and make something of their lives ... I can’t provide them with that long-term happiness.”
The heartthrob began his film career as an assistant to his father Rakesh Roshan, an actor-turned-filmmaker, before his breakthrough as a leading man in the romantic drama Kaho Naa ... Pyaar Hai (Say it’s Love) 14 years ago.
Roshan says his role in Bang Bang! is the closest he has played to his real-life personality. The film, also starring Katrina Kaif, is an official remake of Hollywood's Knight and Day, which starred Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, a movie Roshan says he "instinctively" felt was ripe for a Bollywood adaptation. "I saw the film on a flight and I said, this can make a really good Hindi film. And then a month later I got offered the film."
The movie demanded a high level of action and it was during one such shoot in Thailand that Roshan is thought to have suffered a head injury that lead to a chronic subdural haematoma, for which he underwent surgery last year. He says he is “fine” now and suffering from nothing “that will ever stop me from doing the things I want to do”.
The injury and his recuperation, followed by separation from his wife, contributed to a delay in the production of Bang Bang!.
But his Bollywood success shows no signs of waning, with a trip to Hollywood also on the cards. “I have five to six offers all the time but I have not yet found the right script that will ignite me,” he says.
