‘I Was Born This Day’: Siddhant Chaturvedi Celebrates Five Years Of Gully Boy

Five years ago, on this day, Gully Boy hit the theatres. The coming-of-age film not only propelled Mumbai’s street rap scene in the mainstream but also put the spotlight on actor Siddhant Chaturvedi. Gully Boy was Chaturvedi’s first high-budget film, and he has since then, worked on many big projects. On Wednesday, Chaturvedi celebrated Gully Boy’s fifth anniversary in a wholesome Instagram post.

Sharing snapshots from the film’s set, he captioned the post, “I was born this day.” He also tagged director Zoya Akhtar and film production house Excel Entertainment in the post.

In Gully Boy, Chaturvedi played the much-loved role of a street rapper named MC Sher. The critical and commercial hit also starred Ranveer Singh in the title role alongside Alia Bhatt. It had Kalki Koechlin, Amruta Subhash, Vijay Varma, and Vijay Raaz in supporting roles. The film was inspired by the lives of Indian street rappers like DIVINE and Naezy. In 2019, Gully Boy won a record 13 Filmfare Awards and became the most-awarded film of the year.

Chaturvedi was spotted for the role of MC Sher by Zoya Akhtar herself. She saw Chaturvedi at the success party of the web series Inside Edge in which he played a small role. Akhtar asked Chaturvedi to audition for Gully Boy and later cast him as MC Sher.

In an interview with PTI, Chaturvedi spoke about being at the right place at the right time and said, “I struggled for six years and there were many rejections and low points along the way. I started from the bottom. But I always had this raging ambition to go out there and prove myself with that one perfect opportunity. I always used to think ‘ki apna time kab ayega’ (my time would come), and as luck would have it, Zoya had been looking for MC Sher for a year and I happened to be there at the right time.”

In an interview with the Asian Age, he shared his experience of working with Zoya Akhtar and said, “I always looked up to her work. I’ve loved her films. But, I never thought she will direct me. It has happened but feels like a dream till now. I was nervous. She’s a fabulous director and knows how to work with actors. She made me comfortable. She is kind, and generous. She knows what she is doing.”