He has legions of female fans thanks to his status as one of TV’s top actors. And his on screen appearances will have you believe that he’s quite the suave personality in real life too.
However, Gurmeet Choudhary admits that when it comes to interacting with women, he’s painfully shy. In fact, his wife Debina (Bonerjee, the TV actress) had to intervene to get him to pull off his torrid lovemaking scenes with co-star Sapna Pabbi in the upcoming film Khamoshiyan.
Recalling the pep talk from his wife, Gurmeet laughs in embarrassment. He was in Cape Town, shooting for an erotic scene when he got the call from Debina, urging him not to be shy.
“She has always been very encouraging. She’s an actress herself and understands this business. She knows everything I do whether it’s a love scene or a fight sequence it’s all make-believe,” he says.
In fact, Debina was only too aware of his inhibitive shyness as she’d been on the receiving end of it during their courtship.
“When it comes to women, I am really shy. When I was seeing Debina I could never bring myself to say ‘I love you’ to her. It was she who had to finally say, ‘You’re trying to tell me that you love me, right?’ Thank God she got it out of me. Otherwise I may have never been able to let her know my true feelings!” remembers Gurmeet, fondly.
Despite the encouragement from his wife, Gurmeet admits that he very nervous about how he’d look making love on screen.
“I had a trial show for some of my closest friends who would never bulls**t me. They said I was good. That’s when I breathed a sigh of relief,” the actor says.
As for what Debina had to say about his performance, Gurmeet laughs before adding, “We’re both much too close to the film to be objective.”
Incidentally, Debina has a role in Khamoshiyan although Gurmeet isn’t in a position to disclose any details: “All I can say is, she comes in at a crucial juncture in the plot.”
His mentors, the Bhatts, certainly seem to have a lot of faith in Gurmeet, and have signed a three-film contract with him. Clearly, he is all set for his big screen shift! It’s been a long road to the top for this son of an army officer from Bihar.
But, “I don’t want to romanticise my struggle,” Gurmeet counters. “Every outsider has to face hardships. I was no different. Since my father earned Rs 15,000 how could I ask him to support me? From surviving on biscuits for lunch to cajoling friends to give me a bike ride to a studio to save on transportation, I did it all. I don’t regret my days of struggle.”
