Actor Sayani Gupta looks back at her early days at FTII, recalling the tough decision to quit a high-paying corporate job at just 21 to pursue acting. She opens up about facing strong resistance from her mother, who disapproved of the profession. She revealed how her mother threatened to slit her wrist and even equated actors with “prostitutes.”
Sayani Gupta on mom’s opposition
In a chat on Cyrus Says, she shares, “My mom said, ‘I am going to slit my wrist if you go,’ and she couldn’t believe it. I was bored out of my skull those one and a half years. I made a lot of money because I was a workaholic, but this is not what I saw for myself… all my life, growing up, she didn`t let me go for theatre rehearsals and locked me in my room, saying actors are prostitutes. That was the idea of actors that she had.”
Sayani said that while her father was supportive, he was more of a friendly figure in her life, with her mother being the decision-maker. So much so that her mother did not speak to her for a month after she got into FTII.
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The actress shared how an interesting shift occurred when her mother was offered roles in student diploma films on campus itself. She accepted three out of the five offers and told Sayani, “Maybe if you have to do this for the next two years, it’s not so bad also.”
Sayani Gupta’s recent releases
Sayani’s latest include the ultimate season of Four More Shots Please! and Delhi Crime Season 3. Four More Shots Please! follows the story of four unapologetically flawed women (two in their 30s and two in their early 20s) as they live, love, make mistakes, and discover what really makes them tick through friendship and shots of tequila in millennial Mumbai. It also stars Bani J, Kirti Kulhari, and Maanvi Gagroo.
Meanwhile, Delhi Crime stars Shefali Shah as Vartika Chaturvedi, a sharp police officer who leads her team through intense investigations under immense public and political pressure. Sayani was seen playing a female member of Huma’s team, helping her in her vicious plans.
Sayani was also seen in films such as Jolly LLB 2, Pagglait, Article 15, and Axone, among many others.
