Gulshan Grover: Delhi is excessively crowded now

He was born, brought up and educated in Delhi, so naturally actor Gulshan Grover has a very special connect with the city. Now based out of Mumbai, he still visits the Capital whenever he gets the chance, and he witnesses how, while some things have changed, some are still the same.

For starters, he feels there are many more people here now. “Every Metro city’s hustle bustle, madness increases or gets multiplied. Delhi has always been a very vibrant city because of the embassies. It always had a wonderful charm, because of it’s places like Janpath. We see so many foreigners there. It has a different kind of energy. It was, is and will always remain happening, but it is excessively crowded now,” says the 65-year-old, an alumnus of Sriram College of Commerce (SRCC).

Whenever he visits the Capital today, he makes sure to visit the Delhi University campus area, and Connaught Place. “It was THE place to go. We would go for theatre rehearsals at Shankar Market, the area around IP college, we would go there for dates. Every celebration or achievement was at CP, you could have a meal, coffee. The most fantastic times was winters. DU looked like the optimum of fashion, with long scarves, which we later saw in the film Bobby also. All of us would wear fascinating jackets. The winter of Delhi is really fantastic,” he gushes.

He credits his university days for instilling in him the fascination with acting. “I was with a theatre group, we would perform in all the beautiful college auditoriums, then university competitions. The wonderful things which I learnt made me develop a strong foundation before I went to Mumbai to be an actor. Wherever you originate from is always special, and I love Delhi for many more reasons, than just this,” says Grover, who celebrated his birthday recently in the Capital.

He tells us, “We went to Connaught Place for some work, after many years. Winter has still not set in, so I am waiting for it to arrive. And then he arranged some cake. I was surprised! I didn’t know a party was waiting for me.”