My surname didn't always have the connotations that it does today, says Sidhartha Mallya

What does being born into privilege feel like? Does it come at a huge price? Having it all —is that a weight easy to carry?

- Renuka Vyavahare

Sidhartha Mallya, son of businessman Vijay Mallya, reflects upon these thoughts and more in an in-depth chat with Bombay Times from the US. The actor, whose recent memoir addresses his mental health journey, says that, “Most of us are quick to make judgments by seeing what’s on the outside.”He also elaborates on the baggage of his surname, his controversial father and more. Excerpts…

For the outside world, Sidhartha Mallya is someone who’s born with a silver spoon. What else could he need! Would you say that all the privilege you enjoyed came at a huge price?

I think it’s subjective, right? What do we mean by ‘have it all’? For different people, different things are desirable. Sure, from a materialistic point of view, the outside world might have a general consensus that I had a lot growing up, which I did. But most of us are quick to make judgments by seeing what’s on the outside without having any clue of what might be going on internally.

How do you cope with these preconceived notions that people have about you?

For many years, I just buried it. I am not old by any stretch of the imagination, I am 34, but the world today is a very different place than it was when I was 10. I went to an all-boys boarding school at the age of 10. Growing up at a time when mental well-being wasn’t prioritised among kids, maybe I was a product of the environment that I was in. These sorts of things like mental health weren’t talked about at all. I probably wasn’t even aware of what I was going through. It was only later in life, when I started working on myself that I realised how much it had affected me.