Tiger Shroff Tells It Like It Is

Lights, camera, action! Tiger Shroff literally lives by this blueprint, finds Raghuvendra Singh

- Raghuvendra Singh

Tiger Shroff took to the stage early in life. His first appearance was when his father, Jackie Shroff, carried lil’ Tiger in his arms as he went up on stage to receive his Filmfare Award for Best Actor (Parinda 1990) presented by Rekha. Today a star in his own right, Tiger has taken center stage, his kicks and jigs, both being crowd pullers.

His latest outing at the box-office; Dharma Productions’ Student of The Year 2 (SOTY2) co-starring Ananya Panday and Tara Sutaria, received mixed reviews. But Tiger’s action and jazz were the highlights of the sequel. Tell him that and he smiles, “It’s a blessing that I have an identity when there’s so much competition around. How does one stand out?” He goes on to cite the example of his idols. “Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, and such larger-than-life celebrated heroes have one thing in common action! Action has a universal language,” says the actor who grew up being inspired by the legends. An MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) expert, he’s a diehard Michael Jackson fan as well. In fact, he recently paid tribute to the late artist with a dance video, where he ‘moon-walked’ to Ranveer Singh’s Khalibali from Padmaavat.

Tiger played a kabaddi player in SOTY2. He practiced hard to get the body language of a kabaddi player. “At the same time, I kept my athletic form in mind because a certain audience likes me doing my ‘Tigerism’. I mixed them both,” he grins. The college in SOTY2 was idyllic and far from reality. “I was basically studying romance, how to woo the girls,” he chuckles.