While people go to college to build a career, Harshvardhan Rane chose to go the other way round. After becoming an actor, he chose to pursue his graduation in Psychology Honors and last month, he took his first-year exams. “There’s still two more years to go but I do feel a sense of fulfilment.
There was always this void of not completing my education to become an actor. In the last few years, there has been some sense of belongingness within the industry, maybe just from my side. So, I picked up on filling the void I had always felt,” he says.
Rane ran away from his home at the age of 17 and has been fending for himself since, thus not getting the opportunity before to focus on his education. Ask him if he was nervous before the exams as he gets before any of his film’s release and he quips, “Nervousness mein maine bahut zyada padhai kar li thi.” A post shared by Harshvardhan Rane (@harshvardhanrane) It wasn’t easy to manage time for his studying in between his acting commitments, but the 40-year-old made it possible.
“I started walking to my gym which would take 45 minutes, and I’d listen to audio lectures in that time. During exercising, on my way home, in car transit, at airport lounge, everywhere I would listen to lectures. And I have done the most amount of study in flights.
I have started to love traffic also because it gives me time to study. I have done my assignments at a government office when their servers went down,” he shares. But didn’t his classmates at the exam centre recognise him? “The first five exams went without anyone recognising me as I had a mask on the whole time.
But by the last two exams, the discussion about me being there started spreading. I used to go early and rush to the classroom to avoid being recognised. But after the exam, I chilled with the people, and we had some amazing conversations,” Rane shares, adding that he has already started to work for his next exams.
“I already started the prep for my next year’s exams the day after my first-year exams got over. Even my tutors asked me to take rest par mujhse nahi ho raha hai, mujhe aata hi nahi hai. Mere classmates mujhse pareshan hai ki itni jaldi padhai kaun start karta hai,” he says.
A post shared by Harshvardhan Rane (@harshvardhanrane) The Sanam Teri Kasam actor insists that human behaviour always intrigued him and thus he chose psychology as his course. “I am an actor and an actor studies behaviour, and psychology is the study of behaviour, so it overlaps. I have had this curiosity since childhood to understand human behaviour.
This course has definitely broadened my horizon and there is nothing more beautiful than understanding the human mind,” he says, adding that there were people who questioned his decision to get back to studying. “The general attitude is that whatever you do is not the best thing to do. But I don’t listen to anything negative against my plans.
When I ran from my home, people said I wouldn’t be able to get food for myself, so I did that. Then they said I won’t be able to get a job, I did that too. They said actor to bhul ja, maine wo bhi kara.
After my first Hindi film, a big personality from the industry told me that I will not get a second film, today I have done nine. So, I have this habit of proving others wrong when they question my decisions. I kill them with my smile,” he ends.
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