It is quite difficult to survive in an expensive place like Mumbai - Ashutosh Kaushik

Bigg Boss 2 and Roadies winner Ashutosh Kaushik is working hard to make his mark in films. “I have a slew of films of which the first is the psycho thrillerBhadass with Pakistani actress Meera. In the film, I play the owner of a press who loves Meera. This project, which was to release on 5 July, has now been pushed to 2 August (2013) due to technical reasons,”he informs. “Then in the other project Jaat in Mood, I play the lead. This big budget flick is our attempt to create a separate film industry for Western Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal. The casting has also been done locally and we hope to go on the floors soon once the rains abate as we have lots of outdoor sequences,” Ashutosh adds. The actor has one more film titled Ahimsa that is based on cow slaughter. “This project too will go on floors this month. In this film I play a corrupt politician,” he avers. Coming to masala films, Ashutosh played roles in the recent films like Zilla Ghazaibad and Shortcut Romeo. “My role in the former gangster film was heavily chopped on the edit table. I was just seen hanging around in the background. I had a decent role in Shortcut…Unfortunately that film tanked at the box office. I feel that the script was weak though Neil Nitin Mukesh did a good job,” Ashutosh describes. Currently, he has another big project titled The Boss with Akshay Kumar. Are you not scared that you might again get a raw deal as far as your screen presence is concerned? “I can’t say much as ultimately films run on big names. Why will they give us good billing,” Ashutosh states. Finally, when asked him as to what worked in his favour that he got a number of films, while many other TV actors failed in such an attempt, the actor quips, “I think you need to have a focused attention besides putting in hard work. It is said that you need a Godfather to survive out here, but I don’t even have a real dad. What helped me majorly was the fact that I have a dhaba (road side eatery) which keeps my kitchen running. Else, it is quite difficult to survive in an expensive place like Mumbai.” Well said, Ashutosh!!!