Rohit Roy, the actor, has been around for a while now.

But it’s in the past couple of years really that Rohit, the all-rounder, has emerged. He’s in films, on TV, acting, dancing, anchoring, directing and producing. “I’m very happy with the way things have shaped up. I’m a firm believer in destiny. A lot of people have supported me and I’m thankful to them,” he says.

At the moment Rohit’s very excited about something he’s never done before hosting a chat show. The show called Inside Bollywood with Rohit Roy on Zoom starts today at 8 pm. “It’s a show with a soul,” he emphasises. “It’s not a show where celebrities come and talk about their journey, their struggles, etc. Here they talk about a subject close to their heart.”

Like Sanjay Dutt has spoken about being being destiny’s child, how he sets out to do a thing and something else happens. Maanyata, too, has exclusively spoken about ‘Sanju Sir’ on the show. In another episode, Tabu and Naseeruddin Shah talk about trained actors versus non-trained actors. So also, as Rohit reveals, there are other interesting episodes lined up Sanjay Gupta and Madhur Bhandarkar on ‘inspired’ films, Mahesh Bhatt and daughter Pooja Bhatt on alcoholism, Sharmila Tagore and Nagesh Kukunoor on censorship, Suniel Shetty on friendship.

So how good is Rohit when it comes to extracting the right stuff from his interviewees? “Mostly the celebs on the show are either my friends or people I have worked with. We have that comfort level. Besides, we take up subjects they would like to talk on. I don’t ask uncomfortable questions. That’s not the idea.”

Rohit hopes to have Karan Johar and Amitabh Bachchan together on his show. So also, Aishwarya and Abhishek Bachchan. And another dream combination, he says, will be that of SRK and Aamir Khan. So what would the topic for them be? “Don’t need a topic! I’d just love to chat with them.”

Rohit’s wife Manasi Joshi Roy has conceived and produced this show. “She is a huge fan of Oprah Winfrey,” he points out. So, did she ask him to slip into Oprah’s shoes? “Not really,” laughs the actor. “Actually it was the channel. They felt I should host this show. They wanted a person who was incisive and somebody who the guests would be comfortable with,” says Rohit, who’s inspired by Jay Leno.

This show isn’t all serious, there’s a lot of friendly banter too. “In one episode we have Neha Dhupia talking about wanting to shed her sex symbol image and do meaningful cinema. Dino Morea, who was with her in the show, kept pulling her leg saying ‘Kya hamare films mein meaning nahi hai? It’s all good fun,” says Rohit, who’s himself known to be humourous, fun-loving and chilled. “But as a kid I was very shy,” he reveals. “My childhood friends still can’t believe I have changed so much. I guess it’s the exposure. But at heart I’m still the same shy guy.” And what drives him? “My work. I’m very serious about my work. But I don’t take myself seriously,” he smiles.