But Vaastav, if you look at it, isn’t a gangster gangster film. It’s a film about a lower-middle class family and what happens to that family. I thought it was a brilliant subject.

• You had a brilliant role and got awards for that.

Yes. It has a message saying, ‘Don’t go the wrong way, whatever hardships you have in life. Walk on the right path.’ Again there’s talk about drugs and eventually what drugs do to a person. So there was a great message in that film.

• Do you see yourself in it (in that role)? Becoming a brand ambassador for an anti-drugs campaign? (You are) someone who’s not shy of admitting he’s been through that.

That’s what they taught me in the treatment centre. They said there’s nothing to be shy about saying, ‘I was always into drugs.’ Then you can help people. If you are running away and saying you are normal, hardly doing drugs . . . you won’t be able to help people. But society here is very closed . . . people don’t come out and say that.

• Here, people don’t even share it within families. Even families keep secrets. Nobody goes and makes a confession.

You just have to educate these people to come out in the open. It’s like my father told me. He said they had to educate the ladies in these small towns, in the villages, and tell them there’s nothing wrong in saying they have breast cancer. And there’s nothing wrong. It’s a doctor who’s going to check you. But society is so closed. People conceal it. That’s why we need to educate them.

... contd.