Bikram Saluja, you've seen him in more then a dozen commercials is just another model-turned-actor, making his debut with Fiza, but here he's not talking about his acting or his first film but talking about his first love, tennis for the last time on the eve of his release with Nisha Chainani.

Who is Bikram Saluja?

I'm just the guy next door. I was born on the 28th April 1974, and I'm what you would call a typical Taurean, quite, practical, as sensible and down-to-earth as a quiet pair of old shoes. I was born in Indore and that's where I spent all my teething years. We are a family of 5, and life was simple. Sunday's were family days, where all of us along with a few other families went for picnics, met up at each other's houses, where the grown-ups played cards and we played mischief. We went to waterfalls during the rains, burnt crackers at Diwali and threw colour on Holi.

What were you like as a child?

A brat! I was the most troublesome of the lot. I had to have my way or no way all the time. And no one was allowed to scold me or shout at me otherwise I would make a long face, threaten not to eat and lock myself in the room until my mom and dad felt really bad and pampered me until I felt better. And then just to do them a favour I would sit down and eat. I was extremely stubborn, and when I didn't get what I wanted, it entitled me to bring the whole house down! And my parents indulged me completely.

Then I remember how my mother had Green Fingers. She loved her garden and her flowers and her plants and how she nursed them with so much of love and affection until it was summer time! The onset of her fury! Because during the vacations her beautiful garden became our cricket ground! Every afternoon she would take her nap and every afternoon my brother and I would march onto the ground all equipped with our stumps, bat and ball and started whacking the ball all over the garden damaging all her precious plants and flowers and breaking all the pots! And then when she would wake up and see her garden in such a mess and she would then start howling and we would just
run away and hide!

As a child were you inclined towards acting or the arts?

Not at all! At the age of ten, I discovered the first love of my life, tennis! Ever since tennis came my way, it became my entire focus of attention. From then onwards, I stopped going out, I got special permission from the school to go and play at the club everyday, and by the time I was 13 my parents even sent me on a special two and a half months training programme to the United States to coach in tennis. When I got back from the States I started playing in tournaments but I only started doing well in the game after I turned 16, when I actually started winning some of them.

I mean, everybody at school wanted to become a doctor or engineer or some professional or the other, but all I ever wanted to do in my life was play tennis. I wanted to become a professional tennis player. Probably as a kid I participated in class plays and that too because the entire class participation was compulsory but nothing else.

So what happened?

But by the end of the 11th year of school, I left Indore and went to Poona to join the Symbosis College in the 12th and primarily to pursue tennis because the level of tennis in Indore was fairly poor. I shared an apartment there with three other tennis players and our mornings started really early for our hill run. Every day we coached for hours and then we ate an early evening meal and it was lights out by ten every night. But the sweet fruits of vigorous labour soon began to show. I got my first national rankings and I was titled no.2 in the juniors. In 1991 I went for my first international tournament to Taipei. And it's one tournament I'm not likely to forget so easily!

Why?

Well let's just say that everything that could go wrong went wrong! First my coach calls me and tells that I'm going to go to for a world-ranking tournament to Taipei and hands me a ticket and an official letter confirming my entry at the tournament. Great I think but don't I need a visa to go to Taipei I ask him. No problem he says, you can get one from Hongkong as soon as you reach. I was 17 years old! I had traveled only once in my life before that and that too when I was 13, and he wanted me to go to Taipei all on my own, stop over at Hongkong and arrange for my own visa!

Anyway, but that's exactly what I did. I flew to Hongkong, found out from the airport that I could acquire a visa to Taipei not from the airport but I had to go to the Taipei Council's office. So I go there and tell them that I need a visa, and they gave it to me within the hour. Simply enough I think, but when I get back to the airport to board a flight for Taipei I'm informed that I don't have a confirmed reservation and that all flights going to Taipei that day were full. The only available confirmed seat I could get was two days later. I couldn't wait two days! I had to be there by tomorrow, otherwise, I missed the tournament completely. So I hang around the airport all evening in the hope that they'd have one empty seat for me but they didn't, and my heart sinks deeper as time goes by. Finally, there was one empty seat on the last flight out and it had my name on it! So off I was to Taipei!

When I get to Taipei airport I call the tennis federation there and guess what? I had all the wrong numbers! It was night, the airport was shutting down, so I get into a cab and tell him to take me to this address. But the buger didn't understand one word of English, so he takes me to a railway station and tells me to get off! I wasn't going to get off! It was 2 am and I didn't know where the hell I was or where the hell to go! So I tell him to take me near to where I had to go, and he takes me to the street round the corner and then tells me to get off! As I get down I see a 7 Eleven's store still open so I walk towards it. Now as I'm walking I see a Westerner and I run across to him and ask him if he can help me. He attempts to give me a few directions and then walks into the store buys himself a can of beer, comes out and says, you see that park over there, I turn to look and I say yeah, and he says, well, I wouldn't go there if I were you, unless you're gay, and he walks away! Unless you're gay! What did he mean by that! Being gay was still a very misunderstood concept to me in those days, it's as if he had said don't go to that park over there, there are monsters in there! It's silly when I think about it now but back then I was shit scared! So I run into the 7 Eleven's store and ask the guy over the counter if he would help me out, and he does. In fact, in the morning after he finishes with the store he takes me there himself. So after my first night out on the street in a foreign country I finally reached my destination, and to one of my careers best tournaments!

And then.

After that I started playing a lot of the Asian circuit where I collected my points, and then went to play the European circuit, Mahesh was also there at the time, also playing, when we along with a few other players all qualified to play for Wimbledon. I lost my first round, and then went on to play the US Opens. I lost my first round there too but only to a very close competition. None of the others really made it either. Then came the turning point of my life. After the Opens while Mahesh and the others decided to stay on and join a University there, I opted to go back to Poona. I had only one year to go to graduate, I didn't want to join a University in the States and start my studies all over again. I thought that I had better spend my energies playing instead of studying. I would play in the men's category and so on. It's a decision I live to regret. For one thing I didn't know that I could exchange credits! I could simply have joined a University in the States and taken up from where I had left off in the Poona University! When I went back to Poona and started playing there my game didn't improve considerably. In the whole of India there were probably 20 good players and sometimes I would go abroad to play, but if I had chosen to stay in the States, there are at least 1000 good players to compete against, which meant that my game was likely to improve at least a 1000 times!

Seeing that my tennis was not going to go anywhere, one day I decided and I quit! I lost heart, I lost belief in myself and I gave up! I was never going to be a professional tennis player! At 20 my dreams were over!

But that wasn't the end of the world?

No! A few years later after my stint with modeling, I found acting!

How did Fiza happen?

I was going from office to office giving my photo's around when like that I walked into Karan Johar's office and he told me that he hadn't started yet but I could go and meet Khalid Mohammed if I liked, he was looking out for a fresh face. So I went and met Khalid and things worked out between us and the next thing I knew was that I was doing Fiza! It's not the ideal launch pad for a new comer, but it's a start and I'm grateful.

And acting is like.

Playing tennis, except with new rules. Instead of the forehand, I have to work on my expressions. Instead of my backhand I have to work on my body language. Instead of my serve I have to work on my speech. Instead of my volley I have to work on improvisations.

After tennis I thought my life was over, but this is just going into set two and the games not over yet!

My first day of shooting was just expressions. It was a graveyard scene for which I had to sport a stubble. I reached the location early to get the feel of the place. I wasn't nervous in respect to my performance, I knew that I was quite capable of doing the job I was hired to do, but acting with a new medium as I soon discovered was different to stage! On the stage I was free to express all my gestures and body movements, whereas, working with the camera it wasn't quite the case. With the camera every gesture, every movement had to be specific, controlled and I was only just beginning to adapt to a set of new instructions.

Khalid has been a true mentor to me. He's been generous with his advice and has always been there to correct me when I faltered. He's helped me to understand the finer aspects of acting and opened my vision to all the small, small things I had been over looking in my performance. Learning though is a never-ending process and it takes a while to even begin to implement everything you've absorbed. It's like riding a bicycle, though you know how it's done, it still take a while to successfully be able to implement it and ride without falling. But at least I'm learning how it's done. I'm seeing things my eyes weren't seeing earlier and I feel so greatfull for all his suggestions. I don't know how successful I've been in putting into practice everything I've been learning.

Karishma has been very supportive and helpful and patient to all my follies. I mean I realize that they are all in a position where they don't have to put up with it. She could just have easily have turned around and complained that I don't want to work with this guy, he's new and he's making too many
mistakes! But she didn't do anything of the sort and I'm greatfull for her patience towards a new comer.

Hrithik and I only shot twice. Once before the release of Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai and once after, so we didn't get a chance to interact that much.