'As irritating as flickering tubelight': Riteish Deshmukh recalls career-worst criticism
What's the story
Riteish Deshmukh, who recently appeared in the web series Pill and the horror-comedy Kakuda, has opened up about the harshest criticism he's received in his career.
During a conversation with ETimes, Deshmukh recalled a critic's scathing review of his performance in the film Naach.
The critic had written, "Riteish is as wooden as a wooden bench in the film," and described him as "as irritating as a flickering tubelight" in the movie's final scene.
Seeking understanding
The review helped Deshmukh better his craft
Confused by the harsh critique, Deshmukh sought clarification from his director Ram Gopal Varma.
RGV told him, "You know what it means? I spoke to the critic and he said, every time you said something, you were blinking so it was irritating him."
"But it taught me. Every time I act, I try not to blink because blinking while acting in an emotional scene disconnects the audience."
Learning from criticism
Deshmukh embraced criticism as a learning opportunity
Deshmukh further took the criticism to heart, viewing it as an opportunity to improve his acting skills.
"Every criticism will teach you something, however offended you might be. As long as people don't get personal, people can criticise me as much as they want as I will learn from it."
Naach also starred Abhishek Bachchan and Antara Mali alongside Deshmukh.
Released in 2004, it's now streaming on YouTube.