Actor Sidharth Malhotra wants to visit a new city every year. The travel buff has a conversation with Unnati Joshi
Travel formed a significant part of actor Sidharth Malhotra’s growing up years. His father Sunil Malhotra was in the Merchant Navy. Hence the family would visit a new place every summer vacation. And young Sid would gather new experiences, which fuelled his can-do spirit and helped shape an expansive worldview.
Sidharth is currently in New Zealand as a brand ambassador of Tourism New Zealand. “My dad was pretty fond of driving us around India. Delhi is pretty close to Himalayan retreats be it Shimla, Kullu, Manali, Dehradun. It is also close to national parks. And as dad’s ships stopped at different ports, I saw the world with him. Travel shaped the person I am today.”
As brand ambassador of New Zealand tourism, he is taking his job rather seriously. “This is my second visit. It feels really good that you are representing a country as a whole. Every day you can add to the general awareness of what that country can offer. Undoubtedly, I feel proud,” he told us.
“It all started last year when I was speaking to my team about my vacation plans. I really wanted to try some adventurous sport in New Zealand as I had read about it. It so happened that the tourism authorities there were also looking for somebody to represent the country and promote adventurous tourism in particular among a younger demographic. It all fit in beautifully and I had it in my bucket list. Now I can claim that New Zealand is home to some of the most amazing adventure sports and they have the safest infrastructure for conducting them with technical and qualified staff. The whole trip has been very soulful and I have got my once in a lifetime experience.”
Being an adventure junkie himself, Sidharth tried an array of activities in New Zealand to get his adrenaline pumping.
“There are loads of great experiences here; it’s very difficult to be short on them. last year, I did sky diving which I think is very unique to New Zealand. They have a very scenic view to jump off. It was 15,000 feet and that feeling is something that I cannot describe in words. I think everyone should try it once. Of course you will feel scared or people might think you are mad for jumping off a plane but trust me that high is second to none in this world.
“This year, I went zip-lining in the jungle, which again is a great experience. Going about 50 km per hour, which is really fast, and seeing the forest flash by you almost brushing your skin is surreal. Then I walked on the Auckland Bridge. It is amazing, you can see the entire city from there, better than any Google view. I can keep going on and on. The sky walk, lugging, jet boarding, all these experiences are unique to New Zealand and I think I will recommend it to every traveller.”
He was lucky to escape the earthquake that hit the northeast of Christchurch a week ago. “I wasn’t there in the city but everything is normal now. Touchwood, the intensity of damage was much lesser this time. As far as I am concerned, people here are very practical and everything is back to normal. There wasn’t any major emergency as such.”
While shooting overseas, Sidharth factors in his “me-time” to discover the place. “Earlier this year, I was shooting for my action film in Miami and I did have few days off in between. So I stayed back even after the shoot was over to just experience the city. We are very lucky to have a profession where we get to travel for work and meet people. And it’s much easier to bleed in the crowd overseas because people there don’t know much about Indian cinema. So you can be a regular guy about town and have fun like everyone,” he gushed.
Does he savour the luxury travel or individual routeIJ “luxury I think is very subjective and personal. It depends on your source of income, what background you come from, how much exposure you have had. An economy class is luxury for some, first class routine for others. For me luxury travel is all about comfort and staying in the best places and hotels. I like to explore history and culture and that’s a huge luxury given my constraints. I like to do food walks. That’s how you get the pulse of the city. In New Zealand, too, I have met many warm people. I have met the Prime Minister a couple of times. He is just so humble and unassuming. I met him at the Auckland airport, sitting in the lounge waiting for the flight that we were sharing. He was travelling in a commercial flight. So I think that speaks very highly of a country and how warm and welcoming they are. We had conversations about politics, Bollywood and a lot of other stuff.”
The travel buff has made a new year resolution. “I want to see a new city every year. I have managed to do that in the last three years and would like to keep it that way.”