Chelsea Celebrity Corner: Shray Rai Tiwari

Actor and model Shray Rai Tiwari joins Arjun Kapoor in the new episode of Chelsea ke Superfans.

In the new episode of Chelsea ke Superfans, Arjun Kapoor gets chatting with the multi-talented and dynamic Rajasthan boy Shray Rai Tiwari, who is an actor, model, director and swimmer.

A seasoned model and actor, Shray has acted in multiple movies like Kuch Bheege Alfaaz, Guilty and SHAB. He acts and directs movies and commercial advertisements these days and has collaborated with the likes of Godrej, DHFL and Tuborg and has featured on OTT platforms like Netflix, Zee5 and Youtube.

The multifaceted Shray Rai Tiwari has also written a book, “Almost a Swimmer: Excerpts From My Childhood Diary”, which details his journey as an athlete. He has also been an advocate for mental health and has been a speaker at TEDx Talks, speaking on the topic “Mental Health is as Real as Climate Change.”

Shray talks about how he first read about Chelsea in a local newspaper daily where they had misspelled Andriy Shevchenko's name whilst reporting about his arrival at Stamford Bridge. Focused on swimming, Shray Rai Tiwari did not keep in touch with the world of football till 2009-10.

He admits that even then he only watched a few matches here and there. His admiration for Chelsea blossomed into an obsession in 2012. He recollects a fascinating memory from that time. Shray was at a hotel to attend a cousin's marriage.

He lodged up with the rest of his cousins who all happened to be Manchester United fans. The Champions League final between Chelsea and Bayern Munich was taking place and his cousins were all supporting the Bavarians. It was Shray against five guys but at the end of the night, he had the last laugh.

He says he was so happy that he jumped over his cousins out of joy and there has been no looking back ever since. The actor and model, who was part of a United Nations video for the LGBT community called 'The Welcome', which came out in 2014 says Diego Costa has been his favourite Chelsea player from the last decade.

Diego Costa was an absolute beast at Chelsea, always ready to go to war to win games for the Blues and that kind of commitment always wins fans over. Shray liked how fans of other clubs loved to hate Diego Costa because of his relentless, belligerent displays.

Shray Rai Tiwari picks his Ultimate Chelsea XI

Shray and Arjun Kapoor are happy and in agreement that Thomas Tuchel's entry has come at the right time for the club. The former says that Andreas Christensen, Mateo Kovacic and Cesar Azpilicueta are perhaps the most important players on the team currently.

Shray loves the fact that Thomas Tuchel is a man who pays a lot of attention to detail and is great at in-game management because of the same. Finally, Shray gets around to choosing his all-time favourite Chelsea XI and it looks like this:

Petr Cech; Branislav Ivanovic, John Terry, Gary Cahill, Ashley Cole, N'Golo Kante, Oscar, Frank Lampard, Eden Hazard, Diego Costa, Didier Drogba.