EXCLUSIVE: Sanjana Sanghi on being asked to avoid smaller parts, if she wants to play lead: This is my life…
The Dil Bechara actress opened up on starting out with Rockstar, juggling academics with acting projects, losing out on parts, and about her journey from ‘auditions to narrations’
Sanjana Sanghi started out by playing smaller parts in films like Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar, Saket Chaudhary’s Hindi Medium and Mrighdeep Singh Lamba’s Fukrey Returns. However, last year she made her debut as a leading lady with Mukesh Chhabra’s Dil Bechara that had Sushant Singh Rajput in the lead. She will next be seen with Aditya Roy Kapur in Om: The Battle Within. In an exclusive conversation with Pinkvilla for our special Women's Day edition, Woman Up, the actress spoke about her journey from ‘auditions to narrations’.
So did any casting director or an agency ever show apprehension for casting her in the lead part, because she had played smaller roles in the past? “A lot used to get told to me, where it would be like ‘don’t keep doing these, you know then it will get tough to cast you as a leading lady’. Honestly, maine suni nahin kabhi (I never heard all of that). I can’t have Maddock Films wanting me to be a young Mita in Hindi Medium, and be a school kid in the 11th and say no. I am getting to go for seven days away from school to perform, there is no way I am going to say no. And if that means I won’t get lead parts later so be it. This is my life right now and I want to live it to the fullest. I think me having that faith, really helped others also in a way, ‘isko hi fark nahin padta toh (if it doesn’t matter to her), let’s keep testing her for leading parts also. And the one that I wanted works out, worked out. I think the others were never meant to happen, because lots were tested for before Dil Bechara,” Sanjana recalls.
Has she lost out on parts because of doing smaller roles earlier? “I have lost out on parts, now I don’t know whether it's because of smaller parts or many other reasons. There are so many that I haven’t got, the ratio has been skewed,” says Sanjana. She adds that now when filmmakers, that she has dreamt to work with, call her with an intention of narrating a script, she gets shocked. “Because just to know that they have that faith in you as an actor now where they want you to helm their projects, it feels unreal,” adds Sanjana.
To know more about Sanjana’s journey from Rockstar to Dil Bechara, her challenges and struggles check out the below video.