The Hindu College, New Delhi, recently felicitated one of its more famous alumni Arjun Rampal. The tall and handsome model-turned-actor graduated in economics and was given a certificate honouring all the work he put in during his three years there.

Rampal and Imtiaz Ali, the director of Jab We Met, were both at the college at the same time and reminisced with older students and teachers. During his college years, Imtiaz took part in college theatre. Rampal revealed that in the summer of 1990 he walked into college and mistakenly asked a senior to carry his luggage into the hostel. The actor was subsequently ragged for a long time and vowed never to rag his juniors in turn. Rampal is admittedly very much against ragging and considers it to be equal to a full-fledged crime.

Would you like to come down for the second edition of Kolkata Fashion Week?

Kolkata is special. I have been privileged to spend time in the city and make some great friends there. I like to go there whenever I can.

You walked the ramp with wife Mehr at the fashion week in Mumbai...

It was fun. But I still get nervous walking with Mehr, because she is so good on the runway.

What was it like, shooting an ad film with Nicole Kidman?

Nicole is a thorough professional. It was amazing to see how she would go about doing things. Also, she’s very beautiful. The entire team was superb. The ad is stylish, sexy and humorous.

Bollywood hunks, eat your hearts out. Hollywood actress Nicole Kidman is in India this week and the only Desi star who gets to meet the gorgeous Oscar-winning actress and actually work with her is our Arjun Rampal!

Kidman is not here to shoot her next film The Eight Wonder in Jaipur, in which she plays a female Indiana Jones on an archaeological discovery that takes her on a race around the world. Nor is the Australian actress here to meet friends in New Delhi.

Kidman has actually come to shoot an ad film for a carbonated water and ginger ale beverage company and Rampal will feature in it with her.

Though he made his Bollywood debut in 2001 and has acted in around 20 movies since then, it took Arjun Rampal eight years to get his first Filmfare Award. But the model-turned actor says no wait is too long to taste success.

"No, not at all. I don't think it is late. I believe it's better late than never. When I joined this industry, I was a complete outsider and it took me some time to understand how it functions,"Arjun told IANS.

"You learn to grow in this industry and if you are growing that is great,"he added.

Arjun, who entered filmdom with "Moksha", won the Filmfare Award this year for Best Supporting Actor in "Rock On!". The 36-year-old actor is now upbeat about working in Prakash Jha's political drama "Rajneeti"which also stars Katrina Kaif.

Actor Arjun Rampal is on cloud nine about his work being appreciated in the industry after so long post Om Shanti Om and Rock On. He’s joyful about being given the best supporting actor award at the 54th Idea Filmfare Awards.

But then something's troubling him too. That's about not mentioning the name of that great personality who he thinks has been his big inspiration in life in his acceptance speech. And the man whom he adores a lot and calls the motivation in life is Bollywood’s megastar, Amitabh Bachchan. Arjun Rampal later sent an apology SMS to Big B which touched him a lot.

While Shah Rukh Khan is nursing an operated shoulder at home, his good friend Arjun Rampal is dealing with some 'back' issues too.

Like they say... friends in joy and pain, huh? Shah Rukh is smartly using his recovery time (his sutures were removed last week) as a script-reading vacation. Of course, everything is second to the special time allotted for his bachchas. After the great response to Billu, SRK has taken a keen interest in a variety of scripts, especially the kinda roles he hasn’t donned in the past. On the other hand, the Rampal dude is a rockstar after all, and pains of such kinds... whether it’s in the neck, back or dil, for that matter, can’t stop him working his butt off.