How ‘aspirants’ view rejection: Naveen thrown out from the sets of Agneepath, Sunny rejected from thousands of auditions

The first season of the web show ‘Aspirants’ was released on TVF’s YouTube in 2021. This is the story of three friends, who are taking coaching in Delhi with the dream of passing UPSC. Further in the story, it is shown that all three friends have a dream of becoming IAS, but only one of them is successful. In this series of five episodes, the story has been shown in an excellent style.

In this film, Naveen Kasturia, Shivankit Singh Parihar, Abhilash Thapliyal, Sunny Hinduja, Namita Dubey have played their respective characters well. Apoorva Singh is the director of this series. This series became so popular among the people that the makers had to make its spin offs ‘Sandeep Bhaiya’, ‘SK Sir’ and these also became very popular.

The team of ‘Aspirants’ recently gave an interview to Dainik Bhaskar, where they talked about the rejection. Naveen considers failure as a wonderful thing, whereas Shivankit told that if someone rejects him, he starts doing other work.

Naveen said- We learn a lot from failure
It is very common to get acceptances and rejections in the film industry, is there any rejection that shook you from within? Naveen explains that we learn a lot from failure. This is a wonderful thing. Naveen also shared an anecdote. He said, ‘When I was trying to become a director, I got entry into Agneepath Camp, which made me very happy. I had thought at that time that I would stay here for two-three years and then start directing my own films. Then I thought that I would settle down, but within a week I was asked to leave the camp. I was very sad.

I felt that I got this opportunity with so much difficulty and now that it is gone, I was very disappointed from inside. I didn’t know when would I get such an offer next and when would I become a director, but if I had done that at that time, I would not have been able to do ‘Sulaiman’. Because of ‘Sulaiman’ my career changed and I became an actor. I will be thankful for this change throughout my life.

Rejection is very common
Sharing his story, Abhilash said, ‘When I started radio, there were a lot of rejections even at that time. I went to a radio station for a job but they asked me to do an internship. Since I had previously worked, when I saw that radio jockey on the first day of the internship, I felt that I could do better than this and the next day I left from there. After 6 months I was hosting the same slot. It is very common to face rejection. I have come from doing radio, TV and now I am doing this kind of web series.

Shivankit said- I do not believe in second chance, for me second chance is a waste of time.
Regarding rejection, Shivankit said, ‘If someone rejects me, I move on to other work. I don’t hold back that if I get rejected, I will keep doing it. My last show flopped, this fact has definitely shaken me. I thought that if the audience did not like my show then I would make another genre of show. I don’t believe in second chances, for me second chances are a waste of time.

Namita said, ‘At one time in my life, I had given many auditions, but I was not getting any work. I don’t understand people who say they like auditioning. I want to ask those people what they think about rejection. In my view, rejections are definitely frustrating, but necessary.

failure should fuel fire
Sunny said, ‘Fire should grow from failure and turn that fire into fuel that will keep you running in the race of life. I continuously gave 4-5 auditions a day for months, and my wife used to say that I should get an award for this. She used to ask me where does my courage come from? When will you work or just keep giving auditions?

I think I learned a lot from that rejection. I decided that I would be so capable in the audition that the other person would not be able to refuse. Yes, it took time, but in the end it was done. Many times in the audition people used to say that the look was not fitting. I remember I thought, why don’t I give the audition in such a way that people don’t focus on my looks. I had put a Pakistani accent in ‘Inside Edge’, perhaps because of that I got that role.