Love. Finally.

Dear Shraddha,
I am in love. With you. It happened only a couple of days ago, and now I suddenly realize that I am very late. A little explanation is required and I hope you read on and let me tell you all that I want to.

Three years ago when I had first seen you in 'Teen Patti', I did find you immensely attractive. But the film was very unimpressive and your role was brief. Time went by, and although I always remembered how infatuated I was with you for some time, I never pursued you. And then, day before last, I watched your latest sensation, the film the entire trade is talking about, the film that has shattered various records at the box office and has surprised us all with its extra-ordinary run. I am sure you know all about it, including the fact that in the last 10 years, this film is the second highest fourth-week grosser, behind only '3 Idiots'. In the last ten years when we have seen huge numbers piled up by superstar-driven films, this little film of yours has managed to supersede all expectations. And let me tell you, a major portion of that revenue is actually a result of you and your work in the film, because you have done something in the film that no actress could do in recent times. Ask any man in the audience and you will know.

I apologize for going for the film almost a month after its release. I know you will never forgive me for that. But I tried to make up, you know. I watched it on Tuesday. And went back on Wednesday, this time only for you. I don't think I have ever done this. And I think I can go to watch it again. Not because I loved the film, but because I have fallen in love with you. I understand that I might be loving the 'image' of you projected on the screen. I do feel like Scottie from 'Vertigo', chasing the image of a woman played by an actress. (If you haven't watched that film, we will watch it together some day!) But somehow, I feel you and your character Aarohi are not two people. It seems both of you were born together, as one, and it will break my heart to see you doing the run-of-the-mill roles that other actresses are doing. If only my advice mattered, I would strongly advise you to keep playing the same character in all your films, because you have that rare quality of making men lose their sleep over you, in a way that is hardly lustful, but born out of the innocent charm that you possess. I am sure there must be millions of men like me, lost in your thoughts, and hoping to meet you some day.

Shraddha, I loved every moment of your presence on screen. I loved the way you brushed your delicate fingers against your wrists while singing your first lines of the song "Chahoon main ya naa', and later when you rehearsed in the balcony with your legs up the chair. I loved the way you said "nahin baba" with tears in your eyes, just before your first recording. I loved the way you ran up and down the stairs at the amphitheater, 'presenting' RJ to the audience. I loved the way you sat on the floor, against the door shut on you, trying to cajole him and help him. I loved the way you ran down the corridor of the recording studio and hugged him with that expression of infinite affection and unending support. I loved how your eyes were always fixed on him, whether in public or alone, as if everything that you were receiving was futile in front of the man you loved. And I loved the wonderful monologue you had just before the climax, when you talked about how you will accept 'his love' in order to bring him back. My eyes were wet throughout the film, looking at your beautiful face and worrying for you and wanting to take care of you. But that monologue broke my heart. I was crying. Your simplicity had won over me.

Looking at you, I felt you should be taken away from this cruel world to a land where all joys can be yours. From your fingertips to your hair, from your eyes to your smile, from your voice to your tears - I felt like treasuring them all. I have never felt like this for any other woman on screen. I am not a person who falls in love with heroines. I am not a person who falls in love so easily. But you have managed to do that. Today, I am dying to meet you, and tell you how special you are, and wish you all joys in the world. However, the biggest pain for me is that it indeed seems possible. I am not an unemployed goon-of-a-man lolling around the lanes of a my small town in Bihar, suddenly lovesick about an angel on the Big Screen. I am a professional working in the same industry as yours and the feeling that you are very much here, near me, and that there is a possibility that we could meet, however distant, is making me restless. As soon as I finished watching the film, I called up my manager-friend and asked him to get me your number. This mixed feeling of being near and yet so far is killing me.

So, I decided to write this letter to you. And leave it in the infinite cyber space. It is just one click away from you now. And I will wait for that fateful moment when you somehow receive this link, and click on it, and read my first love letter to you. I am hopeful it won't be my last.

Enjoy this success that you so truly deserve. And keep making the world a beautiful place by that wonderfully magical smile of yours.

Love,
Satyanshu.

P.S. I hope you don't take this letter as a trivial word play I do with every woman. Main us tarah ki ladkiyon se is tarah ki baatein nahin karta!