I would Die if I could not be an Actor!

Success is not about being the best talent in any field. Often success depends on one’s passion for an art or a vocation. If you want something enough.. .strongly enough that you can be ready to trade your happiness and comforts – then no matter how high and terrible the odds.. success cannot be far off.

I was reading an interview with arguably India’s the finest actor – Naseeruddin Shah. He is going to teach at one of the newest Actors training school this year.. here he talked about the qualities he will be looking for in his students. These following lines could possibly fit anywhere.. to any profession! Worth writing down and remembering!!

What I advise young actors who come to me — sometimes brought by their parents, sometimes they come on their own — what I say is that there is no advice you can give an actor on what he should do. The only thing he can do is improve himself. And answer this question that he should ask himself, as far as acting is concerned, that does acting mean enough to me that I would rather die than not do it?

And I’m speaking literally, I’m not talking in metaphorical terms. That I would rather die than not be an actor. Because I remember this is what I felt when I was 13 or 14 and decided to be an actor. I knew it would not be easy. I knew I’d face protests, obstacles, rejections — apart from the fear of failure. But I knew that if I could not do this, I don’t want to live anymore.