days a considerable number of films were lined up for me some of which even went as far as costume trials and preparations for shooting however for various reasons these projects simply didnt materialize it wasnt due to anyone elses fault they just didnt come to fruitionas i mentioned earlier i had signed two films with the legendary manmohan desai and several others following the success of papa kehte hain i had commitments with esteemed producers such as yash johar ji raj sippy roma sippy mukesh bhatt mahesh bhatt and goel screencraft unfortunately despite these promising commitments those films never took off as a result i had to turn down other movie offers because of the prior commitments i had made it was quite challenging and even a couple of films that i had planned to direct didnt materializefor instance there was a script i had written called kya pyaar impossible i approached excel entertainment headed by farhan and ritesh who were both incredibly professional and responsive farhan loved the script and expressed his interest in collaborating however we encountered rights issues as the film was a remake of an old black and white european film similarly i had discussions with ashutosh gowariker for another project and he was also wonderful to work with unfortunately circumstances prevented these collaborations from happeningeven during my days as a lead actor there were a couple of film star concerts and shows that i signed up for but didnt materialize it was a series of missed opportunities and waiting periods these unfinished projects cannot be released on ott platforms since they were never completed the waiting and idle periods were challenging both professionally and financially however i choose not to dwell on regrets instead i focus on the projects that did come to fruition and appreciate those experiencesdid you also struggle to break free from the chocolate boy image that actors often get boxed into in our industryyes i did face that struggle particularly during the 90s and early 2000s if you were perceived as the good and decent boy next door thats how you would be typecast it was challenging to be given opportunities to showcase versatility i actually signed a movie in the 90s that could have allowed me to break that mould but unfortunately it never took off so i did find myself stuck in that kind of imagethe good thing is that now with the emergence of movies and content on ott platforms there is a lot more opportunity for actors im thoroughly enjoying this phase where i can explore different roles and work on diverse projects that deviate from what i have been accustomed to for example in mismatched season 2 i portrayed a rich hedonistic flirt with an entitled and privileged rajput character on the other hand in shiv shastri balboa i played the role of a goodhearted father to two young kids which i immensely enjoyedi have recently completed shooting for a show called nanda devi directed