Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan gives the thumbs up to the crowd during a brief stopover in town on Wednesday. Picture by Amit Datta

A bout of viral fever can hardly do anything to temper this man’s charm. Dressed in blue denims, a white T-shirt and a dark blue leather jacket, his hazel eyes covered by a pair of light brown glasses, Hrithik Roshan weaves his jadoo even at the most mundane of places.

The Bollywood heartthrob was at a muddy and dilapidated Esplanade tram depot on Wednesday afternoon for a corporate do.

And while he gave the media a deliberate slip, he made it a point to express his love for the city, winning the hearts of one and all in the huge crowd that had gathered to catch a glimpse of its favourite superstar.

“Calcutta always gives me a reason to smile. Whenever I come here, I always go back smiling, with lots of lovely memories,” he grinned, his dimples working wonders with his fans, hanging on to his every word.

The other thing about Calcutta that completely enthrals Hrithik is the tram that he would “love to romanticise” in one of his movies.

Riding high on the success of his latest release Lakshya, the star, modest as ever, said that he was “very fortunate to have already lived his dream roles”.

“Both my roles in Koi... Mil Gaya and Lakshya are my dream roles. But I have more lakshyas in life. I hope I will keep on dreaming and there will be more roles which I can call my dream roles,” Hrithik smiled.

But playing the acclaimed role of an armyman in Lakshya wasn’t easy at all.

“The rock-climbing scenes that I had to do in Lakshya were very difficult, very scary and very painful. But one has to pay that price for doing something good. If I have to reach higher peaks in life, I have to do much more than shooting at minus 14 degree Celsius on top of a mountain peak,” said the hero, who “wants to live an actor and die an actor”.

“If I weren’t an actor, I would have been out of work,” he smiled — again.