I wanted to become an IAS officer, reveals Mouni Roy

Titas Chowdhury

Mouni Roy started her acting career more than a decade ago with Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. The actor who has now transitioned to films, looks back at the time when she casually went in for an audition and landed the television show.

She says, “I gave an audition for the show which was held right next to my university. Then I got a call from them and I thought that I would go to Mumbai for a summer job and come back to Delhi. But I never came back. I used to do street theatre and I was part of the choreography society at my college in Delhi, and so, all I knew was that I love to act.”

Giving a glimpse into her first few months in Mumbai, she elaborates, “When I came to Mumbai, I didn’t know what was happening in the first year. Only when you start reading a book do you come to know if you’re enjoying it. The same thing happened when I would go on the sets and read my lines. I enjoyed being in front of the camera and I liked rehearsing. But the moments in between the shots when I wasn’t doing anything were the times when I used to feel lost.”

Mouni confides that she had aimed to become an IAS officer back in the day. “I did my under-graduation in English and pursued a post-graduation in Mass Communication from Delhi. I did my dissertation on Habib Tanvir (late theatre actor-director) and Indian street theatre. I was following an out-and-out academic path,” she says, adding, “My father thought that I would go to London (UK) for my M Phil and PhD. All of this sounds so bizarre to me now. He was a bit upset that after so much education, I’m giving it all up. He just couldn’t wrap his head around with the detour that I took. That’s how most Bengali parents are (laughs).”

Coming from an academically inclined family, she reveals that her father wasn’t too happy with her decision to step into tinsel town. “I remember Baba being very angry and he didn’t want me to go to Haridwar (for the shoot). He told me to come home for my summer holidays because my ticket was already booked. I told him about the show and he didn’t talk to me properly for two-and-a-half months. Then when we started talking, he kept asking me to go back to Delhi. I also had planned on going back to Delhi but one thing led to another and I stayed back in Mumbai,” the Made In China (2019) actor says.