Meet actor who got married at 57, was trolled, left broken, didn’t get work, wanted to end life; now runs…

Even though he won a National Award, this Bollywood actor struggled to find work and felt completely broken. At one point, he even considered ending his life. The actor we’re talking about is Ashish Vidyarthi.

He was born on June 19, 1965, in Delhi, India. His father was from Kannur, Kerala, and his mother was from Rajasthan, belonging to a Bengali family. He finished his studies at the National School of Drama in 1990. Besides that, he also joined a theatre group called Act One, which N. K. Sharma led.

Ashish Vidyarthi made his acting debut in the film Sardar, where he played the role of V. P. Menon, a character inspired by the life of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. However, his first film to be released was Drohkaal, which earned him the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1995.

Over the years, Vidyarthi has acted in more than 300 films in 11 different languages. Apart from acting, he also runs a popular YouTube channel with over a million subscribers, where he regularly posts vlogs about food.

While talking about his struggles, in one of his vlogs, the actor said, “Why am I even alive?? This question, I may have asked myself many a time, when I felt completely broken, failed, lost…I know you have or must have experienced this too…When you felt like giving up on your life. This is very personal to me and I feel like the family that I have created on YouTube, I can openly share this with you all, today.”

He added, “as an actor, there are a lot of struggles that one must go through in order to create his name in this Film Industry…I had my share of challenges too. Even after winning National Award for my film and being appreciated for my work as an actor, I soon became a caricature of myself, doing the same roles again and again and again… It was an absolute painful time of my life where I was only hired to do what I had done in the past…”

He further mentioned, “This was the time when I was at my lowest and had thoughts of ending my life…Had I chosen to take my life at that moment in time, people would have said, “Bollywood failed him” or “He should have lived coz he deserved better”….Maybe a couple of breaking news or trending hashtags.” 

In 2001, Ashish Vidyarthi married Piloo Vidyarthi, also known as Rajoshi. They had a son named Arth together. However, in 2022, they chose to separate and filed for a mutual divorce.

In 2023, at the age of 57, Vidyarthi married Rupali Barua. When he shared the news of his marriage on social media, many netizens mocked him. Despite the online criticism, the couple remained unaffected and are happily married.