“Every day I would get rejected while auditioning. One selection changed my life when Anurag Basu had approved of me. Had that not happened, what would my life be?”, Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut on her struggles to achieve stardom.
Promoting her first production venture “Tiku Weds Sheru" in Mumbai, India on Wednesday, June 14 the actress reminisced about where her career started.
Kangana Ranaut states, “All of us, including Nawaz sir (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), have gone through the grind of those days. Today, we have everything– stardom and fans, and the world is very kind to us. But we have also seen the other side of Mumbai, of Bollywood and the underbelly of Bollywood as we call it like the shady audition offices and offers.”
Hailing from Himachal Pradesh, the young Kangana picked up modelling jobs to survive in Delhi when she had decided to pursue her dreams. She recalled the daily rejections until her eventual debut with Anurag Basu's “Gangster” in 2006.
"This film (Tiku Weds Sheru) is a heartfelt ode and love letter to those who come to the city. Somewhere they lose their dreams but end up finding something much more meaningful. We have come from the outside, and we have seen these kinds of struggles. But, somehow, only the films of those who have achieved the dream make it on the silver screen. But there are lakhs and lakhs of people who come to Mumbai every day. Where do these people go? What happens to them? Some of them run away from their homes. I was in a kind of situation where I had shut all the doors behind me. There was no going back for me. What happens to people like me? This thought often occurs to me,” revealed the actress.
“Tiku Weds Sheru” is set to release on Prime Video on June 23, featuring two lead actors Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Avneet Kaur as two aspiring actors who end up tying the knot.