'My surname has not helped me, if it had...': Siddharth Mallya opens up about struggles

Actor and model Siddharth Mallya, son of billionaire Vijay Mallya, has said that his surname has not helped him in any other way more than anyone else. Siddharth has come up with his second book, Sad-Glad - a picture book about embracing changing emotions. Besides writing and modelling, he also teaches acting. When asked in an interview whether he has any plan of coming to screens,  the junior Mallya said: "Definitely. That's the plan. And I'm trying and I'm doing the auditions." 

Siddharth Mallya then narrated what he was going through behind the scenes to get a role in big projects. "No one sees this. All I get is journalists writing how I'm a failed actor because I've never been in anything that they perceive to be major. People don't see what goes on in the background. A lot of the time you see someone on screen, and you're like oh my God that person's an overnight success. It usually takes 10 years to build an overnight success. You don't know what they've been doing when you haven't seen them, you don't know the struggle that these people have been going through." 

"You don't know how many auditions I've been through. You don't know how many major roles and big shows - I'm sure you might have or your viewers will be watching on TV - I can sit there and watch that roll on screen and say I audition for that part...but no one cares. No one sees the hard work that goes on behind the scenes. You're going up against a thousand other people for that one role and you're slugging it out and you're doing auditions and shooting tapes." 

Mallya said his wife had an audition that she had to do while they were on honeymoon. "We didn't have a camera or anything so we had to get the suitcases and set up a makeshift stand and I got the iPhone out and we had to shoot it in the bathroom of our hotel room it's not easy. and guess what if she gets that role we can talk about it one day if she doesn't get that role no one will ever know what we're going through behind the scenes. And I want people to realise that like people who might think that I come from a certain background or have a certain last name and all of that stuff, it hasn't helped me in any other way more than anyone else because if it had you would see me in these projects," he said in an interview with WhosThat360. 

Siddharth's father and liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya, currently in the UK, is accused of fraud and money laundering amounting to an alleged Rs 9,000 crores in unpaid bank loans. In May last year, the CBI, which is probing the case, said Vijay Mallya bought properties worth Rs 330 crore in England and France during 2015-16 even as his Kingfisher Airlines was facing a cash crunch at the same time. 

When asked about how he handles criticism, Siddharth said he is open to criticism for his work: "If it's criticism regarding something that I've created I'm fine to take fullblown responsibility and ownership of that. But when I'm being criticised or targeted or abused for perhaps something that I have no control over and you could probably guess what I'm getting at sort of things that might be more family related, then it becomes different. Because now you're sort of being asked to take responsibility and blame for things that you've not even ever been involved in - and the frustrating part is you can bang your head against the wall trying to convince people that you had nothing to do with it but people are going to believe what they want to believe so it can get frustrating at times."