One hardly expects an established actor to go back to school and live the student life, but Harshvardhan Rane never liked adhering to the norms. “My biggest strength is that I don’t have the ‘log’ of ‘log kya kahenge’ in my life,” says the actor, who chose to resume his education by enrolling in a Psychology Hons course and gave his first-year exams in June 2024. Incidentally, his results came in quite close International Students’ Day, and having scored over 80% in his exams, he is over the moon.
“I shared my result with my teacher and a few friends, and they were all so proud of me. Someone very close to me said that if my father was alive today, he’d be so proud. I hope to even improve this score the next year, and to celebrate, I will do a small dance at home,” he gushes, adding that going back to the student life has given him a reality check. “When I was giving my exam, mujhse do ghante mein paper cheen liya gaya tha. Since I was wearing a mask, the invigilator didn’t know who I was, and we only had our roll numbers and not the names. So, the first day it happened, I was in shock because as an actor, you get used to special treatment. That gave me another perspective of life,” he shares.
On International Students’ Day, Harshvardhan Rane admits to being a “student of life”. “I am a student of human behaviour, and when I close my book, I am a student of films; I am always learning. I was born a student, and I will go as a student. I am either winning or learning in my life, nothing is a failure for me. I find what others consider a failure, a cheat slip for the future,” he quips.
Interestingly, Harshvardhan found a video from during his exams where his seniors told him that scoring even 55% would be quite an impossible task. “I told them I am expecting around 70-80%, to which they laughed and said ‘ye to bhul jao, impossible hai’. They said getting even 55% here is too much and the college fails a lot of students. Now that I have my score, I am enjoying that video much more,” he says, adding that this incident made him realise something important: “People would always tell you excuses of why things can’t happen. Even when I entered the industry, people said the same thing that an outsider like me won’t get work. My learning is that when people say such things, don’t fight them, make them feel they have said something sensible, but you just take a deep breath, smile and focus on your work.”
