Bollywood actor Sidharth Malhotra, who turns a year older today became a national heartthrob after his debut film Student of the Year opposite Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan. However, his film journey wasn't a pleasant one. The actor struggled for years at auditions and after being rejected several times, he chose to be an Assitant Director at film sets to escape the 'negativity'.

In an earlier interview, Malhotra opened up about his time before SOTY. He recalled his first ever audition for an ad film 'rubbish and stupid' adding that they didn’t pay attention to him because he wasn't associated with any agency. Here's his first tv ad with Sonal Chauhan.

He also shared that before making to SOTY, he auditioned for TV to survive but he felt terribly small and unimportant and hence he decided to be an AD. "At auditions, they make you feel terribly small and unimportant. It makes you feel that aapke jaise sau log aur hai. That’s why I digressed and became an assistant director. It was a very negative environment. It didn’t help me grow and kept me in the same loop," he told DNA.

Before his film debut, Malhotra worked as an AD in Dostana and My Name Is Khan.

Currently, Sidharth Malhotra has started shooting for biographical war drama Shershaah, which chronicles the story of Kargil war hero Param Vir Chakra Captain Vikram Batra. The film also stars Kiara Advani.

He will also be joining hands with South star Rashmika Mandanna for the upcoming espionage thriller, Mission Majnu.

Apart from these, Sidharth will co-star with Ajay Devgn and Rakul Preet Singh in Indra Kumars new comedy, Thank God. The film is set to go on floors on January 21