A star was born on January 10th 1974 to Filmmaker Rakesh Roshan and his wife Pinky Roshan. Hrithik was born with six fingers on his left hand, which is considered to be quite lucky and so is his birth number ‘1’, which he is superstitious about.
Hrithik faced the camera for the first time at the age of six and it was for ‘Asha’- a movie, which was being produced by his maternal grandfather. The actor was paid Rs.100 ($2.5) for it which he still treasures. Hrithik’s second movie as a kid was his dad’s ‘Aap Ke Deewane’ which was followed by ‘Bhagwan Dada’, which was being produced by his dad and directed by his maternal grand father J Om Prakash. As a kid, Hrithik was an introvert and stammered while talking. Hrithik’s will, determination and vocal therapy helped him to get over his stammering problem.
Hrithik always wanted to become an actor and when he expressed his desire to Rakesh Roshan, his dad advised him to go abroad for further studies as Hrithik was a bright student. Hrithik was however; too determined to pursue a career as an actor and started assisting his dad on ‘Koyla’. After shoot pack-up, Hrithik would stay back and enact Shahrukh Khan’s scenes from the movie in front of his dad.
Hrithik started dating Suzzane Khan- Sanjay Khan’s daughter while he was still in college. Hrithik was offered ‘Tara Rum Pum’ by Shekhar Kapoor and the actor was to make his debut opposite Preity Zinta in the movie however; Shekhar Kapoor got busy with his International project and the movie was put on hold. Rakesh Roshan had written a new script and titled the movie ‘Kaho Na Pyaar Hai’ and was inclined to cast Shahrukh Khan for the project however; Hrithik was skeptic about the idea as he felt that a love story of that twist would suit a new comer, so his dad proposed to launch Hrithik and gave him four months to prepare for the movie. Hrithik joined Anupam Kher’s acting workshop, took Urdu diction classes and actor Salman Khan helped Hrithik in building a good physique for his debut movie. Hrithik also took dance classes to capitalize on his skills in the movie.
Hrithik Roshan made his debut in ‘Kaho Na Pyaar Hai’ and Kareena Kapoor was to be casted opposite him, but on the fourth day of the shoot there was a fallout between Rakesh Roshan and Kareena’s mom Babita and that lead to Kareena’s exit from the movie. The shooting of the movie came to a standstill as they had to find a new actress and Rakesh Roshan spotted his family friend’s daughter Amisha Patel at a wedding and offered her the lead role. ‘Kaho Na Pyaar Hai’ went on to become one of the biggest blockbusters of the year and Hrithik’s fan following was in millions. Hrithik also won the Filmfare Best Actor and the Best Debut Award that year. Hrithik was however; shocked when his dad was shot by the underworld and many producers started receiving threats on not to sign the star. Year 2000 saw the release of ‘Fiza’ and ‘Mission Kashmir’ and Hrithik got some rave reviews for his performance in both the movies.
Hrithik was signed by ‘Coke’ to endorse their brand for Rs. 3 crores ($750,000) which was the highest amount paid by the company those days. The same year Hrithik got married to his longtime love Suzzane Khan in Bangalore at his father-in-law’s Golden Palms Resort.
Hrithik was riding high on his success until his five big movies ‘Yaadien’, ‘Mujse Dosti Karoge’, ‘Aap Mujhe Aache Lagne Lage’, ‘Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon’ and ‘Na Tum Jano Na Hum’ flopped, and people started writing him off. Hrithik bounced back with ‘Koi Mil Gaya’, but critics started commenting that he could only perform in his dad’s movies. Hrithik proved them wrong by giving a competent performance in ‘Lakshya’.
Hrithik is India’s first Super hero and his movie ‘Krrish’ was one of the record breakers. Hrithik also acted in Yash Chopra’s ‘Dhoom:2’ and is currently shooting for Ashutosh Gowariker’s ‘Akbar Jodha’. Hrithik is one of the most talented and best actors of this era in Bollywood and has a huge fan following, which keeps getting stronger with every movie.
