I developed a crush on Priyanshu Chatterjee when I was just 12: Amrita

At the age of four, when kids would just play and have fun, Amrita Prakash’s parents wanted her to enjoy a different perspective; so, they got her into acting, shares the actor who played Rajni in Vivah (2006). Part of showbiz for two decades, Amrita first faced the camera for a local footwear brand commercial in Kerala.

“Being a four-year-old, I used to act for fun! Acting wasn’t a career then. I think I discovered the actor within me during my teens. I remember being sincere to the craft, right from the beginning. I never attended acting school but was trained on the job, given the kind of people I worked with. I worked with the likes of directors Anubhav Sinha, Sooraj Barjatya, and Imtiaz Ali, actors Amitabh Bachchan, Sonali Bendre, Kay Kay Menon, Vikram Gokhale, Suchitra Pillai, Pankaj Kapur, and Seema Biswas in the beginning of my career. As a keen observer, I absorbed everything,” Amrita says, adding that she is thankful to her parents for being supportive of her dreams.

Her first TV show on a kids channel got her noticed and helped her bag Tum Bin (2001), her debut Bollywood film, when she was just 12. She shares that while working on it, she developed a liking for actor Priyanshu Chatterjee, who played her brother in the film. “I think he was my first crush; it was so cute and innocent. I used to, and still do, call him bhaiya. But I was so much in awe of him. Even today, when I speak to him, I giggle like a school girl,” she laughs.

Last seen on the big screen in Na Jaane Kabse (2011), Amrita has mostly been doing television for the last few years. Ask her if she is concentrating on TV right now, and she adds, “Nothing like that. I am taking up offers that are interesting. Work is work; medium is secondary.”

I think he was my first crush; it was so innocent... I used to, and still do, call him bhaiya. But I was so much in awe of him. Even today, when I speak to him, I giggle like a school girl. AMRITA PRAKASH ACTOR

Amrita Prakash worked with actor Priyanshu Chatterjee (inset) in Tum Bin (2001)