Hrithik Roshan, who began stammering as a kid, overcame his speech disorder through intense voice exercises and the guidance of speech therapists. The actor, who has never shied away from talking about his ordeal with stammering, recently supported a Twitter user whose cousin was bullied by one of his professors for stammering during a presentation at his university. In a strongly-worded tweet, the 46-year-old called out the professor for his insensitive behaviour and referred to him as a "brainless monkey." The actor asked the Twitter user to school the professor and wrote: "Please tell your cousin that that professor and his judgement both are irrelevant. Stuttering should never hold him back from dreaming big. Tell him it's not his fault and it's not something he needs to be ashamed of. People who shame him are no better than brainless monkeys."
Read Hrithik's tweet here:
Please tell your cousin that that professor and his judgement both are irrelevant. Stuttering should never hold him back from dreaming BIG ! Tell him it's NOT his fault and it's NOT something he needs to be ashamed of. People who shame him are no better than brainless monkeys. https://t.co/BDQp9PArag
— Hrithik Roshan (@iHrithik) February 23, 2020
"My cousin who has a stuttering issue was giving a presentation in his class when the HOD/ lecturer told him, 'if you cannot speak properly maybe you shouldn't study in front of the entire class.' He hasn't come out of his room since this incident," read an excerpt from the Twitter user's post.
A few years ago, Hrithik's sister Sunaina Roshan also talked about the actor's extensive journey and how hard he worked in order to overcome the stammer. In her blog post, Sunaina recalled when Hrithik was a 13-year-old kid and was working day in, day out to get his speech and diction right. "I remember watching him at the age of 13 as he would sit and read aloud for hours, sometimes alone in the bathroom every single day, morning and night without fail. For 22 years, I saw him do this. He would record his voice and play it back, again and again, day after day, year after year to know what words had to be worked upon and he would practice those over and over till he got it right. He had a small board up in his room with those Hindi words on it and would keep repeating them every chance he got. He looked like a person determined to learn how to talk without ever feeling like he was a victim. Sometimes, he would shout his lines out so loud that you could hear him from the street below the building," read an excerpt from her blog entry.
Last year, Bollywood actress Sameera Reddy, in an interview with news agency IANS, opened up about how Hrithik Roshan helped her overcome her stammering problem. Sameera revealed that Hrithik gifted her a book that helped her overcome her fear. "Hrithik, being the sweet and caring person he is, noticed this, and gave me a book that changed my life. It helped me overcome my fear. Gradually, I started noticing changes in my speech. I cannot thank Hrithik enough for that book and I still have it with me."
On the work front, Hrithik Roshan was last seen in the blockbuster hit War, co-starring Tiger Shroff and Vaani Kapoor. The actor has not announced his upcoming project as of now.
(With inputs from IANS)
