Karan is not pushing my career: Sidharth

Sidharth-MalhotraMumbai: Sidharth Malhotra, whose next film `Ek Villain` will hit the screens this Friday, has rubbished all the talks about landing plum projects in Bollywood because of his mentor and filmmaker Karan Johar.

Before becoming an actor, Sidharth worked as an assistant director to Karan for `My Name Is Khan` (2010). It was he who gave a break to Sidharth as an actor in `Student of the Year`. The actor`s next film `Hasee Toh Phasee` too was backed by the filmmaker.

Though his third film `Ek Villain` is produced by Ekta Kapoor but other projects that are in the actor`s kitty like `The Warrior` remake and `Priceless` remake are backed by Karan, strengthening the perception that he is promoting Sidharth. But the actor says that Karan is far too busy to `push` his career.

"There are three projects as of now - out of which two are Dharma Productions and one is Balaji Telefilms. If I knew Karan had such a hold on other things I will request him to get me more work," Sidharth said.

"I think he (Karan) has far more work and he has no time. If people think that if I am not apt for a particular kind of a role and if somebody makes a phone call.. It is that easy I wish people keep making millions of phone calls and I keep getting films," he said.

However the 29-year-old actor is grateful to Karan for giving him the break as an actor. "He is someone who is next to my parents... My family. I am grateful to him for showing trust and confidence in me. I am thankful to him he is the reason why I am here," he added.--- PTI