Ashish Vidyarthi and Anupam Kher have shared the screen space in a number of films, most notably in Rakesh Roshan’s 2000 blockbuster romantic drama Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai, in which he played a villain sidekick to Kher’s character, who was the father of Ameesha Patel’s character. But there was a time, Vidyarthi recently confessed, that he made fun of Kher’s “overacting.”Vidyarthi recounted drinking along with fellow struggling actors years ago. They were watching an Anupam Kher film on the television. “We were like, ‘Kya kar raha hai yaar? Overacting! Ye acting hai koi?’ (What is he doing? Overacting! Is this called acting?),” said Vidyarthi, adding, “Then I realised, what am I doing? I’m drinking Old Monk in a stainless steel glass and making fun of a successful actor?”In the interview with Siddharth Kanan, Vidyarthi continued, “Everyone was making fun of him. I thought something is wrong with this environment itself. At that point, something clicked within me: Boss, never make fun of someone successful because they have that ‘X’ factor in them. Ever since then, I’ve worked on my ‘X’ factor.”Vidyarthi faced a similar situation recently when he appeared as a contestant on Prime Video India’s reality show The Traitors this year. “When I met these young people, they told me they have a huge, huge following on social media. When I see someone who’s clicked, I say, ‘Wow, what an X factor you have!’ Now, you may want to do that work or not want to, but you should not belittle them,” said Vidyarthi.He responded to how fellow contestant and content creator Apoorva Mukhija, aka The Rebel Kid, referred to him casually as “Ashish” on the show, before his fellow actor and their co-contestant Sudhanshu Pandey objected to her behaviour. “That’s her style. That’s how she talks. Her persona is like that, and she spoke in that way. Frankly, when Sudhanshu objected, that’s when I realized she spoke like that,” said Ashish.Also Read: National Award-winning Bollywood actor had no money to celebrate victory, was afraid cops will be called at his partyHe then revealed that within a day, Apoorva reached out to him. “She said on message, ‘Sir, I want to talk to you and apologise.’ I called her up and said, ‘Apoorva, I think you’re a wonderful human being. They may force you to go a certain way as per your persona. But you choose your path.’ Apoorva has had quite a journey. She loves her family. There’s a lot of dignity in her. So I was very happy with the conversation she and I had. In fact, she asked me to have dinner with me at my place. So, now that I remember it, we may do that either today or tomorrow, if I’m in town and if she’s free. So, no hard feelings at all,” clarified Vidyarthi.Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd