Actor Rahul Sharma says that he studied in a Hindi medium school and was always pulled up in the industry for not knowing English as well as Hindi. However, today things have reversed, and the importance of Hindi has grown.
“I think Hindi is a wonderful language and the language is wonderful because I have not seen so much emotion in any other languages. There is a lot of emotion in Urdu too, but still, if you look at Hindi, it is very full of emotion and that is why it is a very amazing language. I am so proud of the fact that I studied in a Hindi medium,” he says.
He adds, “Today, I am able to understand its importance, why it was important and why it is a plus for me in today’s time because most of the actors can’t speak Hindi. They feel that if they speak English, then they will be able to connect with everyone and their interaction will be better. But when it comes to performing and connecting with the Hindi audience, then either you are speaking Hinglish or else you need to talk in Hindi. I was rejected a lot, at one time many people told me that if I didn’t know English, I wouldn’t be able to do anything. But I feel that the importance of Hindi has increased even more for me.”
Ask him about what he likes to read in Hindi, and he says, “The Hindi literature that I read in my childhood was mostly by Kabir Das ji, Harivansh Rai Bachchan ji and Rabindranath Tagore. I have read a lot of their poems and their stories. It was there in our course and syllabus too, so it felt good to see and read it. In fact, I read a lot in Sanskrit too, so I feel good that today I read all that and even today I follow those books when I read, it feels good.”
He adds, “I think whatever Kabir Das ji is, his poems have influenced me a lot because the way he writes reflects the truth of the entire world. One tells the truth of feelings and the poems of Harivansh Rai ji were also very accurate, when you are going through a struggle, how can you come out? Should you see how he was very motivational, he had a different kind of tone from his fathers, that is one thing. I am not able to keep up to date with what is happening in Hindi literature because I am able to do very little reading. When I am shooting. So, YouTube has these five things. So, I am not able to keep it but still, I try to read such books which are old and old to me and keep motivating me. I also follow Rabindranath Tagore ji. So, there are many things which are fun to read. These all have impacted me in such a way that whenever I needed motivation in my life, I got it and Hindi has played such an important role in my life that I just can’t explain.”
