Mr. Orhan Awatramani a.k.a. Orry, in conversation with Rtn. Priya Tanna on what they don’t teach you at any school.
Siddhi Shah
So before I read out this introduction that I have about Orry, I would like to ask, who is Orry? Does anyone out here know who Orry is? Who is Orry? A child from Cathedral school? An influencer, some may say.
But before we go into who Orry actually is, I’m going to talk a bit about him. So today we have the pleasure of welcoming someone who might be a mysterious musician, but with a lot more flair for fashion.
Orhan Awatramani. Or as the social media generation knows him, Orry. Now, if you’ve ever tried to keep up with Orry’s whirlwind life, you’ll know that it’s quite an adventure. He’s probably unlocked how to manage squeezing 36 hours into a 24-hour workday. He has this uncanny ability to make even a casual event seem like an insane Bollywood movie. Whether he’s dazzling us with his bold fashion choices, or spreading pure joy with his infectious energy, it leaves us all wondering, how does he pull it off? His true passion, though, lies in spreading happiness through his captivating viral content. This Gen Z invites us all to a world full of fun, fashion, and fascination. And trust me, once you’re in Orry’s universe, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
So without further ado, let’s put our hands together for the maverick, the magnetic, and the trendsetter himself, Orry Awatramani.
Rtn. Priya Tanna
I don’t think everybody here knows this, but about 10 years ago, we got a sea full of interns, all of whom had grown up on a steady diet of The Devil Wears Prada, thinking that every office is exactly like that.
Amongst a sea full of girls whose names I, unfortunately, don’t remember, chirps in one boy, calling my boss “Alex uncle” and me Priya or PT or Priya aunty, whichever one he liked. I’m like, who is this kid? And the only thing that stood out about him was his name. I mean, if any of y’all have read the famous Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, I kept thinking that maybe that’s how clever his parents must have been to name him after that. But they haven’t, just telling y’all. And then, vamoose, I didn’t hear of Orhan, I didn’t know who Orhan was up until recently, when I, like everybody else, was assaulted by the Orry phenomenon. Right from party conversations that are dedicated purely to this man, to people knowing him on a first-name basis, like, you know, you have Madonna, Rekha, Beyoncé, and now you have Orry.
And like the lovely girl who just introduced him said, “What is an Orry and who is an Orry?” And then I realised that Orry represents a very cool new age of success. It’s a success that’s not familiar to any of us. Think about it — most of us have grown up on a very different definition of success. You work hard, you become a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, a banker. You know, you work the hours, you don’t talk about yourself. You get serious when you’re at work, you have a fun side when you’re off work.
And then comes this kid who throws all of that out the window and establishes his own personal brand of success, a success that’s built on self-ridicule, a success that’s built on being self-deprecating, being very, very confident, being cocky, having this cute bratishness to him, treating himself like the star of his own show, treating himself like the star of his own life.
And I still feel that a lot of people don’t digest the Orry phenomenon or what it means to be successful like Orry. So here we are, and let’s find out from the man himself.
First question, I have only one: Why are you feeling everybody’s chest? What is that? Are you a healer? Do you know Reiki or something? Are you passing good vibrations?
I’m going to be so honest with you. And I’m not going to say that I have been saying this, but other people have been saying it. I have never said it, but other people have said it. People say they feel younger when I touch them. And it just became a thing. Get up and do it right now! I swear, I charge for the touch. And sometimes I make people sign a contract saying they won’t accuse me under #MeToo. Because who knows, tomorrow some lady will put a #MeToo case on me. But a lot of people say that they do feel younger, they feel happier, they feel very rejuvenated.
I was once on TV, on a national show, and one of the members of the crowd said, “I heard you heal people.” And I was like, “I’m not saying it, you’re saying it.” And he said, “I’ve been trying to get my wife pregnant for eight years. Eight years she’s not gotten pregnant.” So I said, “I can give you the touch but I can’t guarantee her getting pregnant.”
This is a PG-18 kind of first thing.
And I gave him the touch, Priya. And in three months, she conceived. Now I’m not saying it’s me. Could it have been a coincidence? Sure, but did it happen? Yes.
Orry, it was a coincidence — it wasn’t you.
Well, I got my cheque, he got his charges, wife got pregnant, we’re all winners.
Let me understand this again — you charge them to touch their chest?
If you ask for a touch and to be photographed in the touch, I charge you.
Is there a Rotary discount?
We can discuss that later, yes.
When you were growing up, and I’d like to believe that you’re not so old, so you are still growing up, did you say that you’re going to grow up and be a liver? What did you want to be? When did this journey happen from being my cute little intern to becoming Orry, where people of all ages come to see you? I’m only gobsmacked today.
Um, so I’ll give you the answer very honestly, from where to where, um, normally I’d give some funky answer and a word salad that no one would understand. But when I graduated college, and my parents believed in a lot of hard work, a lot. Like if you know, I interned with you my first summer; I didn’t take a summer vacation. I interned my second and thought I worked every summer.
That must have been so hard, Orry.
It was. It was very hard. I was coming at the crack of dawn to your office, and y’all were grilling me till the night, and I remember on my last day I was sent home crying also. I lost my voice at the Vogue wedding show with all the phone calls and screaming I did. But I was aiming for a job in marketing. I thought I would work at a brand like Misguided — fast fashion, fun, marketing, cool projects. And eventually, I feel I became the product myself, and I’d learned marketing from all the different places I had worked and interned. I had a few friends who were actors, and I realised when you are an actor, you are the product. You’re selling yourself — you’re doing Frooti ads, you’re doing laser ads, you’re looking amazing because you are the product. I was like, “I don’t want to act, but I would love to be the product,” and I was like, if I can keep marketing myself and marketing myself well — and you have to look desirable and aspirational at all times — and that’s really where it happened. Because I did work a good five or six years in an office job. Like there are photos of me in a shirt, with a backpack, going to the office, and I did learn. I worked at the Steve Madden store at Palladium. There are pictures of me measuring people’s feet because when I worked in the office, you also had to work in the store to get that back-end expertise, and I worked with all those products. I worked in the marketing department, in the sales department, and that’s when I realised if you can make yourself a product, you can market it and sell that. What better thing to do. That was it.
So, what was your first real break, and who gave that to you?
My first real break, I would say, in my public life, it wasn’t just one. It was a combination of three. It was a combination of when I did that first interview where I was working on myself, and it went viral because the lady asked me, “Oh, do you work?” And I was like, “Yeah, I work.” But she was like, “Oh, like a 9-to-5 job?” And I was like, “No, on myself.” All the comments there, when it went viral, were like, “He’s not working on himself. He weighs 75-78 kilos. He’s not going to the gym.” And that was the slap in the face I got. And in 2023, I lost about 78 kilos to 51. So I made myself the product. By the end of 2023, the Liver interview went viral. And those were not plugged lines—that’s just me chatting the way I chat, casually talking the way I talk. But the combination of those two, the combination of the friend circle I had, the combination – where credit’s due. I’m not going to lie about the things I had and the opportunities that came my way. But being a celebrity friend is not the only way. If that were the case, every celebrity’s friend would be famous. How many celebrity friends do you all know that are famous? Not a lot, right? And then Bigg Boss happened. And I would like to say Bigg Boss was the first real big break.
One problem I feel a lot of South Bombay kids or people face is that when you start a brand, how do you branch out? A lot of my South Bombay friends, when they start a brand, they’re just selling to their friends. My friend will start a fashion brand or a jewellery brand, and she’s selling to her friends and maybe friends of friends, but eventually, it fizzles out. How do you break out of the bubble and the circle of your social life? And maybe you get into bigger and bigger ones, but it’s still small compared to India. And Bigg Boss, the viewership, was in crores and crores. You could not pay money to be on that show. And I wasn’t on the show; I just did a guest appearance for a day. I did 15 minutes on air with Salman Khan, and then I did one day in the house. That was my deal. And that 15 minutes with Salman, of course, went so viral because you’ve never seen someone playing tug-of-war with Salman Khan over a phone case. And I mean, if you’ve seen it, you know every part of it went viral.
I think most have.
It was a 20-minute segment, and they cut barely two minutes. It was hilarious. And that was the first real break because I was breaking out of the small niche circle that we’re in and pushing into a larger audience. India – crores – and there are billions of people in this country that we don’t reach. How do you reach them?
But my question to you is, was any of this strategic? Did you feel that — I know you said you worked in marketing, you had a normal day job, and you sold shoes at Steve Madden, which is quite shocking.
It was heartbreaking.
Did you sell any shoes?
No.
I’m not surprised.
But the question here is, how did Bollywood happen as a pit stop? I mean, I think the first time, I don’t know about the rest of the younger girls who can sort of attest, but the first time I got to know about Orry was seeing him in pictures with all the Bollywood girls, one night party after another after another. So tell me, that clearly could not have been strategic, you partying with everyone. Then? How is that a career?
Priya, you can make anything into a career. I went from being the background friend — if you look back in the day, I was still in the background, there he was. That’s when they say, “Orry is everywhere.”
I was in the background of the picture, I just moved to the foreground. The more entertaining and interesting you are, the more the spotlight falls on you, and luckily my friends had big spotlights, and so their light was cast on me. If you ask me how I bridged from South Bombay to Bollywood, well, the Sea Link existed. I was going up and down every single day. I was going up and down every single day, but you have to be — see, my friendships, none were strategic.
You can’t keep — I don’t have the energy. And I think people are smart, Bollywood people aren’t dumb. They’re not going to maintain a fake friendship for nothing. If you’re using them, they’re going to know. But like I said, my friends had big spotlights that could fall on me, but you have to be strategic in your time and in your place. You have to be — if you want to make it in that public world. Remember, I’m not in Bollywood, because I don’t act in movies. You have to be at the right place at the right time, and when it comes to parties, I think I’m someone people just enjoy having at the parties because I’m a fun personality. But then what changed is, I take a lot of pictures, and I take a lot. Priya, you may not remember, but actually, I have pictures of you and me from your Vogue parties, and we’re like drunkenly sitting on the sofa together. It’s a very — I should have sent it here so they could have put it in the background. I have the pictures.
I can also put up lots of pictures of you that are shameful.
Please put those, I want those out.
This is not true, I don’t have any such pictures. But I’ll just pretend to be cool and say I do.
So, then what happened is the Orry photo dump happened. So, when you say, what is my entry into Bollywood, it was the Orry photo dump because what happened was it was like, “Oh, he only goes to the very famous and relevant people and takes a picture with them.” So, if Orry didn’t ask you for a picture, it’s a failure on your part. Then I noticed, like after my friends (of course, they’re my friends and all in my photos), celebrities I wasn’t very close to would come and say, “Oh, our outfits are matching. We should take a photo.” And I was like, “I’m in red, you’re in neon blue, we’re not matching.” But I get it. I appreciate the hustle, and I’ll give you the photo. And just like that, said actors are in the Orry dump, and those photos go everywhere.
Those photos go viral. The reel I make goes viral. And so, I realised an actor’s movie comes out once a year, twice a year. It takes months to act and produce the movie, but Orry’s photo dump comes out every day. It became the new Page 3. And if you weren’t in it, I could tell when I would talk to a celebrity and walk away, their face would drop. And I’d be like, that is my new superpower. You know, like when Spider-Man realised he could see, and the spikes came out of his fingers. I was like, if I look around someone famous for very long and then don’t take a picture, their face would drop, like, “He didn’t ask me? Am I a has-been? Is my career over?”
Guys, now you all know why the topic of this conversation is “What They Don’t Teach You at Any Business School.” These pearls you’re not going to get anywhere else. You’re only going to get them from the man himself here. When did — I can’t believe I’m going to say this —when did partying, getting drunk, going from the background to the foreground, all of that become a career? When did you start monetising it? How do you monetise this? How have you become so rich?
I charge a lot, like a lot. And the photo dump charges a lot. Do you want to be in that series? It’s not cheap. Do you want me to come and cover your party? It’s not — if I do it on my own, that’s fine. I wouldn’t charge a friend. If I love you, I wouldn’t even — no need. But if you call me, and you want me to take pictures of you and your guests, and touch all of them, it’s not cheap. So, it’s not cheap. Every time I touch someone, a piece of my soul leaves my body and goes into that.
So yeah, I can see a lot of the lovely elderly people in the room going, “I don’t know what this conversation is. Why have I come here and what am I listening to?” But if anybody is getting entertained, then we’ve done our bit.
I’ll tell you what else they’re thinking — if you say elderly people, they’re probably thinking, “Should I just secure one touch before I go home? What if it does make me a little younger, what if it takes off a few years, a few kilos?”
Okay, so here’s a question. How do you live your day? You’ve said some really interesting things like you don’t like hard work. So, backstage I was asking if we could collaborate on something. You’re like, “Priya, I don’t want to work. I don’t like hard work. I don’t want to take on new things.”
Priya, I did work my whole life for more work. You don’t work to get more —does anyone work to get more work?
Yeah, the rest of humanity.
I don’t —I don’t think that’s a thing. I don’t — I think you work to earn money, you work to buy yourself a nice bag, you work to pay your rent. I don’t work for more work. I work for a paycheck. So, I don’t want more work. My plate is full.
Guys, if anybody’s children are here, I think I’ll just close their ears and cover them. Because you don’t want them listening to this.
Priya, work smarter, not harder. I have tricked an entire generation into thinking if I touch them, that’s work. So, work smarter, not harder.
So, you’ve said you don’t want to work hard, you don’t want to do too much, so how does Orry spend a day of his life? What do you do? You don’t eat, because when Rhea and I asked if you’d eat, you said, “I don’t do lunch, I don’t work hard, I don’t do too many things.” What do you do? How do you live? Are you like a vampire?
Yes, close. A day in the life — no day is repetitive, but one thing I’m very big on: I say I don’t like work. That doesn’t mean I don’t work. I do. Yeah, I say I don’t like hard work, but I work very hard. I was raised with a phrase from my mother: “Every day, hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” And I never understood why she had written it and pinned it on the pinboard, and every morning I’d wake up and see my desk, and it would say “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” I was like, “Is my own mother telling me I have no talent? Is that what’s going on?” But the day does have a lot of hard work. But every day is different. Like I said, I’m living— I’m a liver. I’m living my life, and I’m not altering that for a job. But the one thing that is there every day is discipline. I will make sure I wake up. I make sure that when I wake up, I make my bed. Meaning, that even if someone may think my bed wasn’t made perfectly and he makes it after that, I make it. Because when you make your bed in the morning, that means the first small task you did, you were successful at. And if you are successful at that, the whole day starts right.
I make sure I’m at the gym, hook or by crook, every day. It’s not like, “Oh, I need to go to the gym and keep my biceps big or my stomach flat.” No, it’s about the discipline, that I made that time. And no matter where I am, which country, what day, what time — shoot could be, or work, or office — I make that time and I go. And that’s part of my discipline. So my routine is never the same. Oh, like she said, there are 36 hours in Orry’s day. There are 36 hours. The other day, I flew for one week living in a mountain in Kashmir. I went to Gir, didn’t sleep for two nights because I had work there. I was in Bombay at a friend’s party, and left at 5 a.m. Went to Bodrum for two nights, went to Istanbul for one night, I had work. Was in London for one night, I had work. Came back to Bombay, had parties, and also work for me. So when I say I had a party, the next day I had a party, the next day I had a party, the next day I had to fly to Bangalore for a party. And then I came back because I was invited to another party that I had to cover. This is work — it sounds like partying, but it’s work.
This is what I do in a year.
Can you go to five parties in one week back to back?
Orry, how long have you known me? I don’t go to a party at all.
Now, how am I doing? This is work. I’m cashing out.
See these young girls. They are thinking yeah, this is what we’re going to be doing too. So good to party. I could see that.
They say if you work and you’re passionate about it, it doesn’t feel like work, so yeah. Not that I’m passionate about partying, but…
Okay, let’s talk a little bit about self-deprecation. I think one of the things that made the world sit up and take notice of you is that you’re not afraid to make fun of yourself. And while that is funny, it takes a lot of self-confidence to be the kind of person who mocks himself willingly and openly, right? Why have you adopted that, and how has it worked for you? And the other part of my question is how do you deal with any negativity? Because we all know the internet is not a kind place. It’s a visible place, but it’s not always a kind place. Somebody’s haircut gets them 25,000 comments, so I can only imagine what a fest it is for you.
So, let’s answer that in two parts. 1) I learned from a young age that no one, absolutely no one, enjoys watching anything more than other people’s failures. And if you deny that, you’re lying, because I myself enjoy watching other people fail. So I’m not happy to watch other people succeed all the time. If you say you’re happy to watch other people succeed all the time, you’re lying. Everyone likes to watch other people’s videos. If you see a video of someone failing at something, it will have the most views. If you’ve succeeded in baking a cake, that video is gonna get 100 views. But if you see a video of someone miserably failing at baking the cake, it’s gonna have 100 million views. So, I learned that from a young age. So when you say self-comedy, taking a joke on yourself, people love watching other people fail. So if you watch me make a joke on myself, and I’m teasing myself, my failure is driving my views way up, and this is a secret sauce I shouldn’t actually be selling, but it’s the truth. I’m not gonna post other people’s failures, so I post my own. And luckily, I do have the self-confidence. Honestly, my motto in life is: don’t take anything that seriously. Nothing’s too deep unless it’s life or death — it’s just a joke, it’s not that big a deal.
Have you read books?
No.
Who’s given you this gyaan? Like, where do you get this life philosophy?
Him!
Clearly, your Him and my Him are very different Hims, aren’t they? Right now. But, yeah, and so how…
The online Him.
Yeah, does it bother you? Does it hurt? I’m sure it does, right, Orry?
So I used to get way more hate than today. Today, I get, like, much less hate. Back in the day, I got way more hate. Back in the day last week. And it never bothered me. I don’t want to say I have a thick skin, but it never bugged me, and one day I said to myself, a thousand people are eating me up and destroying me in the comment section in one hour on this photo. Should I feel it? Like, I don’t feel bad, but should I feel bad? Am I the problem because everyone hates me and I’m not feeling bad? Something is wrong. Like, I don’t get it. But I realised that I’ve earned the right to be hated. See, if you’re born famous, you’re born with the attention, you’re born with the spotlight. With great fame comes great hate. But I wasn’t born famous. I’ve gone out of the way. I’ve deviated from the route and gone and done this. So when you’ve done that, you’ve entered this territory. You don’t enter territory knowing it comes with negativity and then complain about the negativity. I’ve earned the right to be hated, Priya. Like, to get those comments, something somewhere has happened for you to get them. So I’ve earned the right to be hated the same way another Bollywood actor is hated. What have I done to be hated the same way one of them is being hated? I am proud to be on the same hate page as another celebrity. I’ve earned it, I’ve worked hard for those comments. So it doesn’t bother me. How could it? I’ve earned it. That is my bread and butter that I have worked hard for. If I didn’t do something right, there would be no comments.
You’ve given me so much to think about. I’m not going to sleep well tonight. I’m going to sit and analyse everything you’ve said, Orry.
But it’s true, I’ve earned the right to be hated. It’s not my birthright to get that kind of attention. I’ve earned it.
Do you think you’re a good role model?
Hmm. Hmm. Yes. See, I thought about it. Hmm. Um, am I a good role model? Yes. Do I respect my elders? Yes, I do. Am I educated? Yes, I am. Um, am I disciplined? Yes, I am. Do I have a good figure? Yes. Like, I do think I’m a good role model. What am I doing wrong?
We’ll let the audience be the judge of that.
Without my name, if you put my bio-data on Shaadi.com, I’m sure someone would think it’s a good match for their kids. And hence, I am a good model.
That’s going to be a whole new conversation on its own. Orry ki shaadi. It’s going to have its own reality show. But tell me, in terms of the little work that you do, the very little work that you say you do, what is it that you do in it? Because there are a whole bunch of people who must be thinking, he’s so funny, he’s so cool, he’s so cute, but what all does he do? So I want you to answer this for their benefit.
Have you heard the phrase, and I’m sure you have, “jack of all trades, master of none,” right? I feel in today’s day and age if you can do something just a little bit, it appears that you can do it all the way. Anything you can do, I’ll make it appear that I can do better. If you can sing, I can sing better. If you can dance, I can dance better. If you can scream, I can scream better. If you can run a company, I can make it appear like I could run it better. It’s more of an appearance thing—that I can do better than you can do, because I’ve mastered the art of…
Of faking it.
Not faking it, but enamouring it. When I said that line, “I’m a marketing genius,” it was because someone had asked me, “Are the parties that fun?” And I said, “I’m a marketing genius.” I meant like, I make it look that way. I make it look so fun that it seems like you could never have that much fun. I make the people in my photos look so good, you will never look that good. I make anything I do look so amazing, that you will never achieve that, and because you’ll never achieve that, it keeps you watching it again and again. When you look at a magazine cover, maybe not today because now there’s all the wokeness, but when you look at a magazine cover, you will never look as airbrushed, thin, pretty, and perfect as the girl on the cover. And because you will never look like her, it keeps you wanting to look like her. So similarly, I mastered the art of — well, I won’t say faking it but facading it. So what do I do? I can do anything, but I facade it so well.
Adorn it, you embellish it. You prettify it with a bow.
Yes. There we go. So what do I do? I can do anything.
Tell us about the collabs you just recently signed on. You’re doing something very exciting with Flying Machine for Arvind. I think you’ve done something with the Philips air fryer if I’m not mistaken. You’ve also gone to Baroda or Ahmedabad to a child’s birthday party, and the father has paid you obscene amounts of money to wish that child a happy birthday. It’s all on your resume.
Guys, this is so funny. This one girl is a big fan, so her father would keep paying me under different names. So I’d never know it was the same family. I’d come for the cake cutting, and I’d be cutting her cake, and I was like, “Oh, hi.” And then I’d come for something else, and she’d be there again, waiting to receive me. I’d be like, “I didn’t know it was you.” And again, another company would call me for some other ribbon cutting, but it was her again, and I was like, “We’re friends now, I can’t keep charging your dad because I’ve met you so many times.” She’s really bought my friendship. She’s 13 or 12, I don’t know, cute girl, whatever. Anyway, yes, the collabs that I’ve done. Flying Machine was a big one, it’s because I did a capsule line with them. So not only am I endorsing the brand, I did a line with them. That was a really fun one. We made a really cool line together, we worked on it. That was the first time I actually sat in a room designing, blah, blah, blah, blah. Actually, I went to design school, so not the first time. But I want to say one of my most fun collabs was the — have any of you guys seen me in PVR or INOX? Does anyone go to the movies? Have you not seen the PVR or INOX ad, where before the film opens, my face shows up and I’m yapping? Okay, none of you all have been going to the movies, that’s really sad.
But in India, only two types of people are famous — athletes, like if you’re a cricketer, or actors, because they’re on the screen. And here I was, Orry, with no movie to my name, but the face of the entire cinema hall. You couldn’t watch a movie — you can’t watch a movie — without seeing me in the intermission. So every day, whether somebody is watching an Alia Bhatt film, or they’re watching Wolverine, or they’re watching Stree with whoever, it doesn’t matter because you have to watch Orry before the film. And that was my best collab because I said, “You guys worked one year for this movie to be on the screen, and I did it.” And you know what? A commercial can’t flop, an ad can’t flop, so I didn’t even take the burden of carrying out a film and selling tickets — I’m just there telling you to buy popcorn. It’s a very cute ad, guys, please watch it if you go to the movies. It’s adorable. But I did it, I’m the face of INOX PVR, how does one do that? Not an actor, non-film personality, but the face of the film hall.
So this is what I mean by him doing it in his own way. It’s his own brand of success that most of us may or may not understand. And you can laugh, and you can go back and have lots of conversations. But there is a certain level of admiration for his audacity. There is a certain level of admiration for the fact that he’s done it his own way with no fear of failure. Do you fear that this could all go awfully wrong? Do you imagine growing old telling people you’re a liver? What is the life plan?
I wouldn’t say I’ve thought so far ahead. I have some future projects that will come up, which should ensure my relevance over the next few decades — future plans, as they call it. But if you say, “Am I scared of failure?” Like I said, nothing — no one — enjoys anything in life more than watching other people’s failures, so if I fail, I will market my failure so well.
People will want to fail; they’ll think it’s cool to fail.
People will. And I support failing. I want my friends to fail. I tell all my friends, “I want you to do something and I want you to fail.” Why? Because failure is inevitable. If you try for something and you fail, and you try something again, it’s a statistical game. If you do something 10 times, you’re guaranteed to succeed one of those 10 times. So if I keep encouraging you to fail, I’m actually encouraging your inevitable success.
How? None of us have thought of it that way, no?
But it’s true!
We’ve all lived life wrong!
Just give me a one-liner. What would you like to do? Let’s say you want to plant this apple tree, and you fail at it, and I’m like, “No, Priya, do it again, do it again,” and you fail at it again. Eventually, you’re going to succeed at planting the bloody apple tree. I was making my viral jar of hearts jelly the other day…
Excuse me?
I have my viral jar of hearts jelly. It’s a jar of heart, what?
What do you mean?
It’s a jar of heart-shaped jelly, and it’s my viral dish.
It’s viral because it’s a heart-shaped jelly.
It’s viral because I’m going to make it go viral when I post it in the next few days. But it’s a heart-shaped jelly in a jar shape, so it’s like the shape of a jar with hearts. I failed — if you watch the video of me making it, I failed so many times — but eventually, I succeeded. So, on the path to success are multiple failures. If you’re constantly failing, that’s a good thing because it means you will succeed eventually.
I kind of like the perseverance. I’m not understanding the virality of the jelly, but I like the perseverance.
You’ll understand, Priya. You’ll send me some. When your entire family comes and says, “Can we make Orry’s viral jar of heart jelly?” that’s when I’ll know I’ve succeeded.
Oh dear. I worry for my life now. And tell me something: do you ever fear not being recognised? So much of what you’ve built your entire career on is the concept of a certain level of fame that didn’t come from you being, like you said, an athlete or an actor. It came from you just putting your greatest product as yourself. You put yourself out there, whether through copious amounts of social media content that you post day after day — updates. It’s a commitment, and you know you’ve honoured it. And then taking on these projects, sitting with all the right people, mocking yourself — this is an entire capsule of success that you’ve built already on now, right? Is there any insecurity about any of that going away, people not recognising you, irrelevance, competition?
It’s not in my nature to be insecure — it’s just not. I feel an insecure person gives off a really awful stench, and that’s just not something I carry with me. I’ve never been an insecure person, honestly. It didn’t matter if I’m in the background, the foreground, the side ground — really, it’s just ugly looking, and it’s just not part of my personality. Would I be afraid that people won’t recognise me or one day may not? I’m not a mainstream celebrity. If I stop posting and I stop going out, sure, like, people’s attention spans are so small—you may forget. Probably not, but you may forget me. And I’m a smart boy. I think my mom had told me really, really long ago, before I was even like this big personality, that you know what happens to a lot of famous people eventually when the limelight dims, and everyone’s limelight will dim. I said on Koffee with Karan as well, the brightest stars — they burn out the fastest. Nothing shines bright forever.
So when you go in knowing that — when you go in knowing that, you’re aware of it — it doesn’t matter in the long run because you’re aware of it. I know that if I’m not getting as much attention today as I was a year ago today, when I finished Bigg Boss and I entered Bastian, which is like a thousand people, people stood up for me when I entered. And I was like, “Oh, well, continue.” And I had motorbike people going on my left and my right — not media, normal civilians. And I pulled over my car and was like, “You will die,” and he’s like, “No, no, mujhe mere gharwalon ko dikhana hai ki main aapse mila.” And I was like, “Wow.” And does that happen today? Yes. But the same hype as a year ago? No, and that’s fine. Hype comes, and hype goes. You can’t go crazy about it. The first thing Salman Khan also told me was, “Don’t become one of those crazy people when the attention stops — you’ll go wild and sad, like grovelling for it.” No, I wouldn’t be scared.
So, my baseline is pretty flat. If you keep your expectations low and your hopes high, it’s a good standard to have. I was in Kashmir right now, in a mountain, living in a tent. I learned how to hold my bowel movements for days at a time. And people in the mountains in Kashmir recognised me, and that was a big pat on my back. I was skiing in Switzerland…
Why were you holding your bowel movements?
Oh, Priya, that’s a talent we need to learn. I feel everyone at one point may need to learn, but if you get stranded somewhere…
Holding bowel movements, viral heart jellies, and healing with a touch where people can even get pregnant.
You said it. I didn’t say it.
I didn’t say I can do that. I’m just, I’m just… Yes. This is my takeaway.
I didn’t say I can heal you. People have said that. I’m just going with what others are saying.
So, tell us about Kashmir.
Kashmir was great, but what I meant to say is people in the mountains recognised me, and that was like a gold star for me. But if I had not been, it wouldn’t have hurt me.
You think? Altamont Road, nobody knowing you?
I think ultimately everyone would know me. People knew me before I was famous also. But yeah, I’d be okay with it, I’d be fine with it.
Any message, anything that you want to say to a lot of the younger people that clearly relate to you, love you, and are fascinated by you? I mean, I can’t tell you the number of people who said, “Oh, wow, I want to come and listen to him speak.” So clearly, you’re doing something that’s resonating with the youth today.
Not working, that’s what’s resonating.
Really guys, next time our speaker choice has to be somebody with a strong social message. This one is saying nobody should work hard.
Quit your job, your boss hates you, you have lunch.
You know who you are, you know who my boss is, right? Just putting it out there, just putting it out there, quit my job and have lunch, come on.
But I think what people resonate with — kids don’t want to be overworked. We don’t want to be told that we should have 700 hours of work. Why would we do that? Who is paying us to do these overtime jobs, and when other people are saying, “Oh, we shouldn’t have Fridays and Saturdays and Sundays off,” like, what do you want us to do?
Now you’re going Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays off. Four-day week.
Whatever, you get it. Who was that man who recently gave an interview saying we should not have Saturdays and Sundays off and have long work hours? And kids don’t want to hear that because, one, the job isn’t paying you enough. So I think what people resonate with me is I took my life and made that into work. I took a living and made a living working. And I think that’s what people loved. And people…
So you’re a worker and a liver.
The day I said, “I’m living, I’m a liver,” I got so much work because of it that now I’m working — I’m a worker. It’s sad, but it’s the truth. And like I said, I charge a lot. So then, how do you not work when you’re being paid phenomenal amounts for doing absolutely nothing? But I think people really love that because it showed a young generation that you actually can do what you love and make it into a living. Cause it’s something people tell you — “Do what you’re passionate about, and it won’t feel like work,” but no one’s passionate about sitting at a desk.
Like, I don’t know anyone who’s passionate about that. Do you?
32 years of a career. I’d like to say, yeah, you enjoy the days.
But that’s why you’re not in the generation we’re talking about. You asked about the other generation.
You may not have those hands left to heal people after this conversation. Just step out gently and…
I’ve insured the hand.
You will need to insure many other body parts, Orry. Don’t act smart. I think I’m done for now with this sweet boy.
But Priya, it’s harder for kids too. It’s too much competition, it’s too…
It is. Kids are not growing up in an easy world, right? There are so many layers of complication that we can’t even fathom. And you bring in a certain perspective. I may not ascribe to the perspective of not working, but you — look at you, you’ve made it work for you, and you’ve done it fabulously. So more power to you for whatever it is that you’ve set out to do, Orry. And guys, I have to say one thing, and like anybody else of his generation who, with this level of fame, may succumb to becoming a brat, I have to say, at the time that I’ve known Orry, he’s been probably one of the most polite, respectful, and well-brought-up kids, and that says a lot, actually, Orry.
ROTARIANS ASK
Orry, what’s your secret superpower that no one knows about?
Oh, this might sound like a useless superpower, but it’s not. I can make all the alcohol disappear without getting drunk. I can outlast you on any night and wake up the next morning without a hangover and do it all over again. And it sounds like a bad talent, but trust me.
Rtn. Priya: You’re sounding like a very bad talent.
It sounds like a bad talent, but in my line of appearances, it’s the best talent. It’s the only one you need. I can sleep at 4 a.m. and wake back up at 7 a.m. and make it to any set, shoot, office, or meeting I have to be at. I’m a very punctual person. I’m a professional.
If you could time travel, what historical event would you photobomb?
The Dandi March. I’ve been asked this before, and it is the Dandi March. I think that’s why I need to be photobombing Gandhi. And someone has made that edit. Someone has made an edit of me in the Dandi March touching Gandhi, and I was like, yes, I will go and take that salt. I will do that. That is where I need to be. That is the moment of it. That would make me timeless.
If you could swap lives with anyone for a day, who would you be and what would you do first?
Okay, so thu thu thu, I would never answer this question because my astrologer told me never, ever in your life wish to have someone else’s life because “be careful what you wish for” vibes.
Rtn. Priya: Legit astrologer?
He’s predicted anything… well, he’s actually a numerologist, but everything he’s predicted has come true. And I didn’t trust him in the beginning. And he told me each IPL match that would win or not win. And each time he was right, I was like, oh, you got lucky with each IPL match.
I think he should be the next speaker at Rotary.
He doesn’t like coming out in public because he’s scared he’ll get into the wrong hands, and people will try to buy stocks based on his predictions, and that’s not okay.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever Googled late at night?
No, I just… Can I check my last Google search?
Rtn. Priya: Just do it, and if it’s rubbish, then don’t tell us. Hold it in your heart.
I googled last what the word “ascribe” means because it was in the five questions you gave me. And I was just like, oh, what does that mean? I was like, I don’t want to look like I don’t know what that word means. No one will take me seriously.
You told us about the pregnancy incident. I was just wondering how do you know whether the right person has shot the gun?
Well, you are right, I did not follow up with a paternity test, but surely I will be invited to the christening of the baby, where I will look at it, and now because of what you said, I will make sure it looks like the father.
What are your charges?
Rs 25 lakhs, yes, Rs 25 lakhs for touching, for anything. You want to collab? Let’s say you’re having some event that I want to be at. Like the other day, I did an ad with the Great Khali. I wanted to do it, but the brand got me to get him, and they did a big production. They obviously couldn’t pay us all bombs, so I took a little bit less — 20. And I did it, but it’s honestly for a collaboration. You want me to appear? I’ll appear. No questions asked if you pay 25. You want me to play at your wedding and touch your bride, your groom, your mother, your father? I’ll do it. I’ll party till 3 in the morning if I have to. 25 lakhs. You want me to come and cut a ribbon? 25 lakhs. You want me to come and fart on someone? 25 lakhs. That’s all. I’m not asking for a lot — just 25 lakhs. 25 lakhs.
Rtn. Priya: This was awesome. Thank you. This will go on my resume as one of the things I’ve done, but never thought I’d do — me and you in a conversation.
You guys have to remember, I started my first job as PR — not PR, direct intern… someone, someone, someone’s intern, intern, intern, intern. So, to even be sitting here means it’s a big climb for me, you know.