My life changed completely when I was studying for my B.Com degree from Bikram College of Commerce in Patiala, Punjab. I’d planned to follow it up with an MBA from the US before joining the family business. However, one important decision turned my life around completely and set it on a different path. In 1993 a cousin who was visiting us from Delhi felt that I should give acting a shot. His gut feeling was that I’d make a successful actor and he managed to convince not just me but my father as well. Within six months I left college and joined Roshan Taneja School of Acting in Mumbai.

The next big turning point came in 1995, when I bagged a small but pivotal role in Gulzar saab’s Maachis. For me, the movie proved to be an education in the business of film-making. However, after Maachis, I hit a low in my nascent career as an actor. For three or four years I didn’t get the kind of work that I aspired for. Most of the offers that came my way demanded the same bearded, long-haired look that I had in Maachis. But by that time, not only had I abandoned that look but I had also decided that I wanted to do something different.

The next important change in my life came with Mohabbatein, the multi-starrer in which I worked with stalwarts including Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan. The movie gave me a chocolate boy image, which stuck for a long time.

After doing many chocolate-boy roles, I wanted to expand my repertoire and do intense roles. At this point Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. came my way. Though doing a cameo is common now, other actors might have refused that role back then. But I’d grabbed it and it gave me an opportunity to play a character that I had not explored before. I was well-received in the film and my role was appreciated.

At some point, I took a conscious decision to act in Punjabi films — a small industry as compared to Bollywood. Manmohan Singh, the cinematographer of Maachis, was making Yaaran Naal Baharaan (2005) and cast me in it. I got a lot of love, adulation and respect from the Punjabi fraternity after this film released. Since then I have been doing one Punjabi film each year to stay connected to my roots.

(As told to Saimi Sattar)