'My left shoulder dislocation was a career-threatening injury'

Chandrachur Singh Picture Courtesy: Mid-day Archives

Chandrachur Singh, who has acted in critically acclaimed and commercially successful films like Maachis, Daag: The Fire, Dil Kya Kare, and Josh, was away from the limelight for a while. He did act in films like Chaar Din Ki Chandni and Zila Ghaziabad over the years. It's Ram Madhvani's web-series, Aarya, which marks his proper return to acting. It's appropriate that while talking to mid-day.com, his first words are those of being thankful.

Watch the full interview right here:

"Looking forward to coming back on the OTT platform with Aarya and reconnecting with fans, lots of well-wishers, and the audience," he said. Does he feel this is a comeback? He said, "I feel this is more of a debut, since it's on the OTT platform, but 'coming after a while' would be more appropriate."

Singh also teams up with Sushmita Sen, so a question on his experience of working with the actress and the former Miss Universe had to be thrown at the actor. His reply comes in the form of a surprising anecdote, "I was travelling by flight from Dehradun to Mumbai and two air-hostesses wanted a picture with me but the airlines didn't allow them so they wanted an autograph. I asked for their names and one of them told me her name is Sushmita Sen."

He adds, "I wasn't sure Sushmita was doing the project, Ram said she's been finalised, let's go and meet her. When we all met we had Goosebumps. What a beautiful serendipity that we were getting the opportunity to work with each other in Aarya. She's a wonderful artist, a wonderful human being, and she has done a great job in Aarya."

When asked about the struggles he had to go through in his career, Singh says, "Back in the late 80s and early 90s, there were quite a few films I was supposed to do that didn't happen. There was heartache, there was struggle, that's a part of life. I got a break from Mrs. Jaya Bachchan who gave me a break in Tere Mere Sapne for Mr. Amitabh Bachchan's corporation. And then I got Gulzar Saab's Maachis within a month and a half."

He then talks about the accident he had that led to his films not doing as well as his previous ones. He says, "Life is full of tragedy and is full of triumph. There are some tragic moments, there are some triumphant moments, there are good days, there are bad days. It's a cumulative force that brings about a change. One of the things that did interfere was my left shoulder dislocation, I had a lot of physiotherapies done for that. It would come out during shoot while shooting an action sequence or a dance sequence. I had to go through a lot of physiotherapies, you couldn't immediately exercise so there was weight gain also."

He continues, "Then I had a surgery but it never healed so I had to work with that disability." The next question is his reaction to something that has been written about him on social media. He says, "Neither you can take the praises seriously, neither you can take the criticism seriously. It's part and parcel of the game. If you're hailed as the next best thing, it puts unnecessary pressure on the actor. If something is written negative, you know who you are. It's a highly magnified profession and we are in high visible zones."

Aarya has been receiving some rave reviews for its storytelling and performances by one and all!

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