Bollywood star Sidharth Malhotra in conversation with Indian international students in Auckland

The star took time out of his very busy schedule to chat to Indian international students in Auckland.

Students from AUT University, Massey University, Media Design School, Unitec, and the University of Auckland came into school on a Sunday to ask the star their most burning questions.

Sidharth’s debut film Student of the Year was about university students, so he relished the opportunity to be back on campus at the University of Auckland’s Business School.

The students were keen to learn how they, too, could go on to become big successes. He advised them to never lose sight of their career goals.  

 “Always write down your target and keep your focus on it. Be confident, and always say yes to opportunities,” he said.

The students were particularly inspired by Sidharth as he is not from a Bollywood family and got his foot in the film industry door by working behind the scenes.

He stressed the importance of working while studying as, for him, this was a key way to build up professional networks as well as learning new skills.

As a former professional rugby player for the Delhi Hurricanes, Sidharth was very interested to hear from three New Zealand India Sports Scholarships students who were in the crowd.

Scholarship recipients Surabhi Date and Ketaki Khare have been leading women’s rugby in India for the past five years. Surabhi, a sport and exercise science student at AUT University was the youngest captain in the Asian women’s rugby circuit at just 19 years old and played in the first Indian sevens team. While Ketaki a sports coaching student at Unitec was a founding member of India’s first female rugby squad and the first Indian woman to win an international rugby scholarship.

Sidharth and the rugby players shared their desire to push rugby as a sport in India, particularly among women, and see more high quality rugby grounds be developed in the country.

Kritika Bhasin, a sport management student at Unitec, asked Sidharth about the sports he plays in his spare time, apart from rugby (tennis, swimming and basketball for those who are interested!).

The interaction ended with a raucous applause as Sidharth revealed he would be supporting the All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup. The next day he met with the Prime Minister John Key who gave him an All Blacks jersey.

The event has been picked up extensively in the Indian media and Sidharth has posted about it to his 2.4 million Twitter followers.

A big thanks to the institutions who pulled out all the stops to make this event happen at very short notice.