Generally, I am quite busy in life with packed schedule and I rarely get the luxury to live a day without any agenda or plan. Today is one such special day where 12 hours are completely mine. I had nothing to do and I thought I will explore youtube. Thinking I will spend 30 minutes, I ended up spending 8 hours on youtube and I learnt many fascinating things in these 8 hours.

These days, my passion has become food as I learnt and experienced that food can heal diseases. So, I went to youtube to sharpen my cooking skills. From cooking videos, I went to fitness and health secrets of bollywood stars. This lead me to interviews of John Abraham, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Shahrukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Amir Khan and I was just amazed by the words of these people.

All these years, I thought movies are a waste of my time(my arrogance) and I rarely watch a movie(may be 1 movie in 6 months or a year). But these interviews taught me how wrong I was. I developed a new respect towards movie industry. I learnt fascinating things about stars. Here are the 7 such things I learnt.

• Strong mind. In Shahrukh Khan’s interview, he said that many people(including directors) told him his face is ugly(yes, ugly is the exact word he used. Not my exaggeration). But he never let his dreams of stardom take a backseat. He still believed in his dreams and worked for them. What a strong mind this man has! Stars have incredibly strong mind that can face pain, intensity, rejections, insults for years.

• Hard work. It takes lot of hard work(sometimes months of hard work) to create a movie scene that lasts for 1 minute. The intricacies of film making are just mind-blowing. And stars work so hard physically, emotionally and mentally. I was amazed that all these stars spoke about working hard as one of the important aspects of their career. Ranbir Kapoor said that for one scene in one of his movies, he had to take 50 retakes and his back ached badly. Now, if someone tells me to edit this simple blog for 50 times, I would stop writing. My ego hurts with just 3 to 4 times of re-writing. But these stars have it in them to try 50 times for a single scene if needed. And for their perfect bodies, they work hard every single day on their food and exercise. Hard work. Hard work. Hard work – this is their mantra.

• Spirituality. Till I watched these interviews, I thought stars are full of glamour and no spirituality. How wrong I was! There is so much to learn from these people on how to handle emotions, how to be humble, how to stay grounded and how to live life intensely. Their down-to-earth nature just surprised me and they are strongly rooted in principles. Some words that amazed me are

• Body is a temple. Take good care of it. Dont use drugs or smoke or take liquor. I have never done that in my life – John Abraham
• Everyday of your life cannot be exciting. If you have learnt how to handle mundane days of your life, you have cracked it. – Ranbir Kapoor
• You are what you eat. – Amir Khan
• I work to give happiness to people through my films. I am here to entertain my fans – Shahrukh Khan
• There are many people behind my success. They are the makers of my life – Shahrukh Khan
• I have a lot to learn in acting – Shahrukh Khan
• I learnt not to take my success to head and failure to heart – Ranbir Kapoor

There are many such wonderful lines which amazed and inspired me. It felt as if I was watching a handsome man or a beautiful woman giving discourses on spirituality. In my view, spirituality is all about being a good human being who practices virtues taught by my Guru like love, compassion, punctuality, discipline, honesty, moderation, detachment etc. And these stars actually practice many of these virtues. Of course, like every human being, they too may have some flaws but their virtues are deeper and stronger than a common man.

Down-to-earth nature. After seeing these interviews, I understood how small I am. When celebrities, who have millions of fans and admirers across the globe, say they are small, what can I talk about myself? I am just amazed at the way these stars carry their stardom. Of course, they do crave for stardom, work hard, achieve it but they also know where to draw that line and take it easy about themselves.(I am talking only about the stars whose interviews I watched today.) And they also remember their mentors, friends, family members who helped them in their journey. They remember their tough days in movie world even after becoming stars.

Strong family values. Till I watched these interviews, I thought relationships of stars are shallow and there are only divorces or breakups. Again, I am wrong. These stars spoke so passionately about their parents, children and partners. They told the audience to take good care of their parents. They fondly spoke about their parents multiple times in interviews. And these are really intense people when it comes to relationships and family values.

Intelligent. These stars are sharp-minded and intelligent. They know their craft and art. They know their strengths and weaknesses. They have great clarity about life and themselves. They are not some dumb people just showing off their body (This is also very tough and needs lot of hard work). They are intellectuals who think deeply.

Work is worship. Many of these stars give 100% to their work. They work hard, go extra mile to become the character they are portraying. There is a lot of preparation and learning that goes behind every movie. These people literally worship their work and don’t hesitate to sacrifice pleasures of life if needed. They work with the enthusiasm of a beginner for every movie. I was surprised to learn that Shahrukh Khan does not take remuneration for his films till the film is released and becomes a success. To him, acting is like performing a pooja.

These are some things I learnt about stars from my youtube binge watching.

After Sushant Singh’s death, I thought Bollywood is all about drugs but there is lot more to the movie industry. Yes, drugs could be there. Nepotism could be there. Corruption could be there. But there are also amazing qualities which we can learn from stars. We can learn how to believe in our dreams when no one in the world supports us. We can learn how to give 100% to the work. We can learn how to keep our body healthy and fit and dance even at 50’s or 60’s. We can learn how to bring joy to others inspite of personal challenges.

My hatsoff to every person associated with entertainment industry. This industry is giving entertainment and joy to billions of people. What if there are no serials and movies? I think people will go mad or depressed with the situations of life. At least, now, many people are able to forget their personal challenges for few hours by watching a movie or a serial. What a great service this is to the world! I wonder if these movie stars and directors are some yogis in past life who chose to live many incarnations in single life-time through the roles they create and act. Life is fascinating and there is so much to learn in life.

Sarve Jana Sukhino Bhavanthu!