MUMBAI: Guru Purnima is a day dedicated to honouring and expressing gratitude towards all those who have guided, taught, and inspired us through life.
Actor Vardhaan Puri, on the occasion of Guru Purnima expresses gratitude to every guide who has shaped his life and moment to bow down to those who have nurtured his soul.
“Guru Purnima is an occasion of acknowledging your Guru. Guru is that person or that group of souls who have touched your life and influenced you in some way or the other.”
He finds his gurus first at home. “My entire family-my parents, my grandparents (all four), and my sister Dr. Sachi Puri -are my mentors.” In his journey as an actor, his grandfather Amrish Puri and Pandit Satyadev Dubey guided him, while Aditya Chopra was a transformative force when it comes to filmmaking and living life on one’s own terms and being passionate about cinema. “One person who is both a guru and a teacher to me in life and filmmaking is Mr. Aditya Chopra. I look upto him in every way possible.”
Vardhaan believes that while having a guru in the film industry is not essential, having someone to derive inspiration from gives one direction. “I don't think it is essential to have a guru or mentor, but there must be someone you can look up to and derive inspiration from. I know so many people who do not have someone to guide them. But that's just perfectly all right. However, I know that those people definitely do look up to someone, whether they know them or not. So it's great to have someone like whom you aspire to be. It gives you direction and that is essential.”
During his assistant direction days, Vardhaan Puri found mentors in directors like Habib Faisal and Maneesh. He also feels grateful for his time with Vikram Bhatt and Mahesh Bhatt on Bloody Ishq. “Mahesh Bhatt Saab has a lot of influence on me, both personally and professionally. He is a very evolved, highly empathetic person, and in many ways, he is my spiritual guru.”
He recalls Aditya Chopra’s life-altering advice: “If someone wants to be in cinema, they have to understand the whole gamut of filmmaking. You have to learn everything, understand what excites you the most and then decipher as to what you are good at. Then put the two together and make a decision of what you want to focus on.”
He adds, “Filmmaking is an art and a commerce. So without commerce, art will fail to exist. And without the art, commerce is irrelevant. When Adi sir said this to me, my entire perspective completely changed.”
Vardhaan Puri believes that setbacks are great gurus. “Setbacks are your greatest teachers. Success is beautiful, but what a failure can teach you is something that really takes you ahead in life.”
He draws strength from his grandfather Amrish Puri's words: “Khudi ko kar buland itna ki har takdeer se pehle, Khuda aa ke aap se khud puche ki bata teri raza kya hai.” “Make yourself so strong and your resolve so unbreakable that the universe tells you that you're putting in everything, my boy, now tell me what you want, and I shall serve it to you."
Reflecting on the meaning of a guru, Vardhaan says, “A teacher is someone who teaches. A mentor is someone who looks out for you and guides you. But a guru is someone who gives you everything they have and is completely secure with you doing better than them. And then they allow you to separate yourself from that guru at the right time so that you can soar the skies and fly very high.”
He sums up with profound reverence, “A guru is selfless. A guru is someone who can, just like a parent, pray for your happiness, success, and health before their own. And therefore, in Hindu mythology, in the Sanatana Dharma, the guru is given an even higher place than the parent. A guru for me is someone who is next to God.”
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