Monal Gajjar emerges as one of Bollywood’s exciting finds during pandemic season

She hopes for a long innings in Bollywood

Monal Gajjar is one of the new Bollywood finds of the pandemic season. The actress, who won a lot of accolades in the Hindi film Kaagaz opposite Pankaj Tripathi, is flooded with offers. Monal, who has acted in several southern and Gujarati films, played the role of Tripathi’s wife in the movie produced by Salman Khan and directed by Satish Kaushik.

“I come from a lower middleclass family and we struggled after the early death of my father. I have seen my mother handle her life, and I used all that in my role as Rukmani – Lal Bihari’s wife in the film. The response has been heartening,” says Monal.

“Everyone liked my work and I am very grateful. But I am still awaiting Salman Sir’s reaction to it. I met him much before I did the film, but I want to know what he felt about me in his production,” she says.

Monal started her career in 2012 with Sudigadu in Telugu and was nominated for the SIIMA awards as Best Debutant. Her big moment came when her Gujarati film Reva won the National Award in 2018.

“Getting Kaagaz was a big opportunity to work with three NSD actors - Satish Sir, Pankaj Sir and Neena (Gupta) Madam,” says Monal. “I have been in the movie industry for eight long years, working in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Gujarati and Marathi, and I am hoping for a long innings in Hindi as well,” she adds.

She seems on the verge of some Bollywood announcements.

Monal was last seen in Telugu Bigg Boss 4 and was evicted before the grand finale. She says that was a huge experience. “I could only speak around 20 percent Telugu. By the end of the show, I felt quite comfortable with the language. People all over showered their love on me, and I am very popular now in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh too,” she signs off.