Koi... Mil Gaya's Rohit gave me newfound strength, says Hrithik Roshan

Fifteen years ago, director Rakesh Roshan gave Hindi cinema its first sci-fi film featuring an extra-terrestrial creature. Starring the filmmaker's son Hrithik Roshan, Koi... Mil Gaya (2003) turned out to be one of the biggest hits that year.

Hrithik Roshan played Rohit, a man child whose life changes after an alien, called Jaadu, comes into his life. 

Yesterday, on the 15th anniversary of the film's release, Hrithik Roshan, who usually keeps a low profile on social media these days, shared some of his memorable scenes from the movie and also spoke of how he found it empowering to play the character.

“Koi... Mil Gaya gave birth to Krrish, and in a weird way playing Rohit gave birth to a newfound strength in myself," the star wrote on Instagram.

Hrithik Roshan said he could relate to Rohit because, as a child, he, too, had had issues of self-doubt and struggled with a stutter. 

"Rohit helped me understand every single thing I went through as a boy with a stutter," he wrote. "And made me realize how everything that ‘is’ was simply meant to be. He helped me understand that strength is not as important as courage. And that it is okay to have weaknesses and being okay with your weaknesses in itself is courage."

The actor also said what others think of you is unimportant. "Another beautiful thing he taught me is never to assume what other people are thinking," he wrote. "He never did. Never tried to mind-read others like we so often [do] in this age of SMS and WhatsApp. Rohit took things at face value or based on evidence. A good tip for today’s generation who should know that you can never really communicate the tone while typing the words. Today relationships are at the mercy of how the typed sentence is interpreted.

"Fifteen years ago, a Jaadu happened in the theatres and another jaadu in my own life. So keep going. Others have said this before, I’m saying it now, and you will say it one day looking back at the things that didn’t make sense. It's all going to work out." 

Koi... Mil Gaya came at the right time in Hrithik Roshan’s career. After making a smashing debut as a lead actor with Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (2000), he had gone through a low phase with the next few films failing to get going. Koi... Mil Gaya arrested that slide and he went on to win the Filmfare Best Actor award that year.

The 44-year-old thanked his father and director and all those associated with the film. 

Read Hrithik Roshan’s Instagram post and watch his memorable scenes from the film below: