Close your eyes and you’ll hear the heavy voice of Hrithik Roshan. Open them and the man before you could pass off as an unshaven Hrithik’s younger sibling. The same taut bod with striking eyes. Hrithik may have cat-like hazel-green and Chirag Paswan’s may be brown but they stand out too.
The actor and the politician have much in common. They are both called nepo kids. Ram Vilas Paswan founded the Lok Janshakti Party (2000) with his only son (not his three daughters) as his natural inheritor. Dad Rakesh Roshan designed, produced and directed Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai (2000) to launch his son. But the nepo kids didn’t get success on a platter. Written off as “finished”, they had a struggle on their hands to establish themselves as worthy owners of their territory.
Health, fitness and calorie conscious, Hrithik is a foodie, Chirag isn’t. But both have one asli gym-going Punjabi parent — Reena Paswan and Pinkie Roshan. Dad Ram Vilas was a true-blue Bihari; Rakesh Roshan’s mother was a Bengali.
Both have a Kangana connection, for vastly different reasons. One went to the cops against her; the other goes to Parliament with her. Both have worked with her as heroes. Chirag had Miley Naa Miley Hum (2011) which bombed, Hrithik did Kites (2010) which also bombed and then Krrish 3 (2013), a hit.
(An interesting aside: Baba Azmi was the cinematographer of Chirag’s film. Little did he know that a few years down the line, his brother-in-law Javed Akhtar would be in a legal tangle with Kangana over a defamation case.)
Hrithik and Chirag are both single for different reasons. From asking Chirag about eating arhar dal and chawal to the sacred threads around his wrist, journos ask him everything but his marital status. A 41-year-old actor in Chirag’s shoes would’ve been quizzed ad nauseam on it. Maybe there’s a story there that stays hidden.
Most of all, what’s common to Hrithik and Chirag is a certain niceness in the way they talk about competitors. Hrithik is known to never run down anybody, the only run-in was perhaps with Kangana. No caustic remarks were made even during or after his divorce from Susanne. In fact, he stood up for her and put a stop to the stories whirling around her demands. Similarly, given the cut-throat world of electoral politics where differences are vicious, Chirag finds it in him to remark that Owaisi has, “a strong personality”, young fellow-Bihari Kanhaiya Kumar is “a good speaker”, Mamata Banerjee “had a good relationship with my father” and Shatrughan Sinha who opposed Modi even when in the BJP “is the original Bihari Babu, a father to me”. When working on Sinha’s biography in 2014, at a massive election rally in Bihar, Ram Vilas had descended from a chopper for the Sinha-Paswan duo to address the crowds. They were both in the NDA then and I’ve seen their camaraderie up close.
Although he has the self-deprecating humour to laugh — “I didn’t give up films, films gave up on me” — Chirag continues to have a firm film connection. His best buddy-bro is actor Arjan Bajwa (Priyanka Chopra’s boyfriend and male model in Fashion, the antagonist opposite Abhishek-Aishwarya in Raavan and Shahid Kapoor’s older brother in Kabir Singh). During Chirag’s victorious run in the LS elections, Arjan was cheering him on Insta, WhatsApp, everywhere.
“All set mere bhai Mr Minister” was Arjan’s status as he headed to Delhi as Chirag’s special invitee for the swearing in. His video of Chirag taking his oath had the caption, “Proud! Proud! Proud! My brother @ichiragpaswan”.
Arjan too has a political background. His father was the deputy mayor of Delhi who died in a tragically bizarre incident. S.S. Bajwa had succumbed to injuries from a fall from his terrace when he was attacked by monkeys in 2007.
A stable actor, big-time fame and stardom have eluded Arjan. So you never know. Chirag may soon draw another actor into politics.
