When East met West

Yes, that's right. And it just gets better. Apart from Eastwood, Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon were staying in the same hotel as Nikhil.

Four-time Oscar winner Clint Eastwood directed the film Invictus based on John Carlin’s book The Human Factor. Invictus narrates the true and inspiring story of how Nelson Mandela (played by Morgan Freeman) joined forces with the captain of the South African rugby team, Francois Pienaar (played by Matt Damon), to help unite his country.

As soon as Nikhil got to know that the trio was put up at the same hotel while they were shooting the film, Nikhil went and met them all. He took two DVDs along, one of them being Letters From Iwo Jima, and got them autographed by Eastwood. Needless to say, the young actor was very thrilled to meet the original cowboy of Hollywood. The two autographed DVDs command a pride of place in Nikhil’s treasured collectibles.

The young Nikhil Dwivedi made his debut in Bollywood with My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves in 2008, in which he starred opposite Amrita Rao. Though the movie didn’t fare well at the box office, Nikhil caught the attention of master director Mani Ratnam, who decided to cast his in his upcoming magnum opus Raavan starring Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai.

Apparently, Nikhil even went bald for the film. The actor was initially hesitant, but director Mani, being a professional made him go clean. A source said, “Nikhil plays the role of a cop. Actor Ravi Kissen, who is Abhishek Bachchan’s brother in the movie, shaves his head off for revenge in the film. Nikhil was reluctant and was not willing to go bald. Mani sir explained him the importance of the scene and after having a discussion with the director for over an hour the actor agreed and went thin on top.”