‘I didn’t have work, stayed at home, but didn’t do TV’

Rishabh Suri

Actor Maanvi Gagroo is happy with the way her career has progressed. But there was a point when she was sitting at home, without work. And that’s because she didn’t want to give in to the temptations of working on television.

“Post web boom, I’m satisfied, but before that… I remember when I did the web show Pitchers (2015), people told me, ‘Pata nahi kya hai’… but I liked the vibe. I didn’t have work at that time. I was consciously staying at home to choose parts. That seemed like something that I want to do,” shares Maanvi.

Soon after that, Maanvi admits that the industry started to notice her as an actor. “Until that point, they thought I can only do bubbly, Punjabi roles,” adds the 34year old.

Though the actor didn’t have work, she was turning down offers, which didn’t interest her. Maanvi says that it was a tough phase, and there were times when she even picked up fights with her parents. “Parents were like, ‘Just do it.’ I was getting a lot of offers on television, they just couldn’t fathom why I kept saying no, because the money was good, and there was job security. It’s still acting, these were the arguments my parents put forth. They said, ‘It’s not a 9-to-5 job, you’re still getting to do what you want to do, we don’t see the issue.’ And I’d keep telling them, ‘It will be fine the first month, but after that, it will become a routine’,” she says.

The actor, who was last seen in Ujda Chaman, says that she knew the situation well because she has seen her friends in the TV industry and how their life has been. “They get up every morning, pretty much it’s the same look, costume, the same set of people, delivering the same lines, thoda upar-neeche more or less — for an indefinite period of time! It will start feeling like a job! So I know how things are.”

Maanvi’s latest film was at loggerheads with Ayushmann Khurrana starrer Bala, both dealing with the same subject of premature balding. On whether she’s satisfied with how her film turned out, despite the controversy, the actor says, “I think the two films are independent of each other. We knew both the films will have their own destinies at the box office and that’s exactly the case. I’m so overwhelmed by the audience reaction to Ujda Chaman. It feels great that my work is being appreciated.”

Maanvi Gagroo recently starred in Ujda Chaman