well your mother is an actress here your
aunt is an actress here and
you know like why don't you just make a
career in the swedish film industry and
i was like no i love bollywood i want to
make it in bollywood it's very difficult
you know to get
uh to rent an apartment here because you
know you're a foreigner
a single girl actress also
you know it's like big no no no no every
day i used to be like dressed in
salvation
and i because if i would wear western
clothes and everyone would be like
you know yes i was like okay then it was
like a tiny room i got where i'd like
stuffed all my things in there
that room had like no ac it became so
hot
um i didn't even know where to go like
what to do
so i literally started to sleep on the
floor you know how difficult was it for
you to
um come all the way from sweden first of
all like and to a different country
that was difficult now that took me
like it took me three years actually so
the thing is uh it's quite funny i've
actually
so i'm half greek and i've i've grown up
like
yeah i've grown up like in a in a very
uh strict way
i would say um like my father was
very strict both with me and my brother
you know like not allowed to
go out and party not even allowed to go
out like nine o'clock
nine pm to go and watch a movie in the
city so the day
when i told my friends that i'm gonna
move to india they were like wait a
minute
what has happened to your dad ellie like
he doesn't even allow you to go out
clubbing but he allows you to move to
india and i'm like well
that's because i have made that happen
like literally it took me three years
to take this step because i remember i
was always
like sitting and talking to dad and i
was like dad i want to go to india
um because bollywood is like my dream i
really want to go for it
yeah and he used to be like well your
mother is an actress here your aunt is
an actress here and
you know like why don't you just make a
career in the swedish film industry and
i was like no i love bollywood i want to
make it in bollywood and then he used to
be like yeah okay
then don't worry like i'll take care of
it you know i'll support you and all
and when the day would come when i would
be ready to leave my father would go
like
oh with what money will you go to india
and i'm like
dad you told me that you'll help me oh
is it
you know so he kind of like played that
game with me
i think because he also wanted to see
whether if i was just a child
saying oh i want to go to india bullwood
you know and then i even contacted
um two family friends of ours
who lives here in india they are indians
and i was like asking them i'm like if i
come to india like can i maybe you know
stay at your place before i find
somewhere else to
to stay you know and they were like yeah
sure you know you can come here and we
can help you around
and then i was working at a jewelry
store and
what i did was i went to the bank i
opened a a
saving account yeah another account
basically where i could just put some
money in there so every time when i used
to get my salary i used to
put some money aside you know to come to
india yes so i saved my money
and then the date came and i sat down
yeah yeah and then i sat down with my
dad and i was like dad i'm going to
india and then again the question so how
will you go
you know and i was like well i have this
much money i'm gonna go and live here
and
i booked this ticket like i i literally
had like the whole plan and i just
showed him everything
and obviously he got really impressed by
it like obviously he was really
scared because his daughter is gonna
like
leave the country and not really like go
to the neighbor country
she's going to go all the way to india
but he was really proud that i had
worked so hard to you know to take
myself all the way here to india like i
really
proved him that i wanted this uh
so yeah so that's how it began and
i came to india and i was living with
this
wonderful family it was always going to
be like my indian family
um here in india really really sweet
people who kind of like
you know opened their arms for me and
took care of me despite them
also being like very very orthodox
um like they are they're from gujarat
and uh very you know like um
very orthodox i would say yeah yeah
so it was still so beautiful of them you
know taking
me as a foreigner girl you know into the
house and of course i had to follow the
rules yeah you know the um
i stay in bombay and i've never moved
like
i'm not from bombay i'm from calcutta
i've never moved in calcutta and here in
i think in five years i had to move
twice how many times
especially because you're a foreigner
and we read things about
what happens to foreigners and people
from different religions especially when
they want to rent out houses
how many difficult processes did you
have to go through to get
oh it was it's very difficult you know
to get
uh to rent an apartment here because you
know
you're a foreigner a single girl actress
also you know it's like big no no no no
like it's
very very difficult like you know you
find a beautiful place
um you feel it's safe there it's good
there
and then you know you just can't stay
there because they're like no society is
gonna have a problem i'm so sorry
and then you just have to find somewhere
where
they are gonna be kind of like okay with
it but um
but i what i love about my journey like
which i've literally like
not shared with anyone i think no i
think there are can
maybe like three people maximum who
knows
my complete story it's quite long i'm
gonna write a book about it one day
in detail but literally you know like
when i came here
and you know with all my respect to this
wonderful
gachi family their cochise i
actually started to learn uh understand
kachi because they were talking
every day yeah um you know it was the
rules like i said like for example you
know you're eating on the floor and
uh you have to eat only you have to eat
only with right hand and i'm a lefty
so it was so difficult in the beginning
you know to like break that
roti with my right hand
and not allowed to drink pani while you
eat the food you know pani you drink it
uh after you eat the food like you drink
it and then you do all of this kind of a
thing
you know all those kind of things so
like for example during my periods i
wasn't allowed to
move around or like touch anything or i
had to literally
you know take my things go down the
building
cross the road throw it there in the big
dustbin
and then kind of like wait to cross the
road again and come back like
and i remember like some people telling
me like oh my god how can you like live
like that like how can you do it and you
come from
you know sweden like up when i used to
tell my my friends it's difficult even
if you don't come from sweden
i know but honestly this is too much of
rooms i
i know but still you know i truly
respect them because it was so kind of
them to
to have me there because i didn't know
anyone here right like
i didn't know anything so i was so
grateful every day that
you know that they allowed me to stay
there until i i found
somewhere to live somewhere else to live
and
uh yeah it was like that cozy tiny
little apartment like me and the mother
used to share
the the bedroom together which had the
ac
and i remember like 100 mosquitoes
biting me every night uh
literally even bit my lip once i
remember that i was like for god's sake
yeah and and you won't believe like when
i was living there
so i was living in gurai it was in guraj
do idea yeah do you even know where that
is
yeah it's like the end of it there's
nothing beyond that
so i literally used to think and kind of
like believe that this is mumbai
you know i used to be there and every
day i used to be like dressed in
salvarkami's
and i because if i would wear western
clothes and everyone would be like
you know yes i was like okay then um
like the the best thing was to to go to
uh hyper's team all yeah that was like
the best thing ever
um yeah yeah
um and then finally you know um
i had fixed up a meeting uh with a
person who kind of like works
uh with bollywood movies that happens in
sweden
yeah um and that meeting was in bandra
so when we went there i was like wow you
know what is this
a different one what is this place you
know yeah
and then from there you know i got to
know some other people and then they
connected me to this one girl
um who was living on yadi road
and was like you know because they were
like honey if
you want to start working in bollywood
you first need to move from gurah
because nothing is going to happen
people will not even know that you exist
i was like oh is it okay you know um
so yeah and then i met this girl um
and we really like clicked and she was
like you know what if if you want to
like
share the rent with me in this apartment
then like you can do it
and uh i was like yeah of course i want
to like live here
like obviously you know so that's when
kind of like my journey
actually took off so basically i have
lived in six houses
uh in mumbai um
and what happened was like um when i was
living with this
one girl here in andhiri she later on
had to
shift from there and then i was
literally like calculating my money and
i realized that i will not be able to
pay the entire rent and i didn't want to
borrow money from my father like i've
been very clear that
i want to work myself up and i want to
be the only one for my career you know
even though of course my father could
have supported me but yeah i didn't want
that
so i understood that okay by the time
i'm gonna start to shoot for mickey
virus my first movie i have to
uh move uh and live as a paying guest
somewhere so
then i had to move to malad and where i
was living with this one girl
and it was like a tiny room i got where
i'd like stuffed all my things in there
that room had like no ac it became so
hot
um i didn't even know where to go like
what to do
so i literally started to sleep on the
floor
um just to get some you know thunder
yeah cooling feeling and all and
it used to be like lizards rooming
around and used to be like a lot of like
cockroaches like in the kitchen it would
always be like
so many cockroaches and i actually made
them my friends
like i literally started like in the
mornings i would enter the kitchen and i
would just
switch the light light on and i used to
be like good morning guys
like literally they all used to be like
this and then they used to go like
this would be like good morning guys ah
gosh
i remember my uh that time and that was
the time when i was shooting also
from nikki virus and you know none of
them knew what i was going through like
the way i was living also while
you know shooting um
so that's something i clearly remember
oh i also remember like when i was
living in this
um other apartment um there was no
geezer so every morning
i would always shower in ice cold water
and i used to be like oh my god i'm just
gonna die
like literally like the day i got like
a proper like shower with gizer and all
and where i got like garampani i used to
be like oh wow this is heaven
this is so good you know so it's so
funny like the way i have like
lived so differently like from my
lifestyle the way i've lived back home
in sweden and how i came here
and how i started you know living
like this way and now i live like
in my own apartment very comfortable and
nice and all but it's nice you know
remembering those days and
how crazy it was actually but how i was
just like
yeah it's okay because i have to go
through this because i really want to
reach there
um it's nice yeah yeah so like cockroach
is not a big deal for me now i'm like
yeah it's a fellow
it's a friend like lizards and just if i
have to sleep on the floor it's not
going to be a big deal for me i'm going
to be like yeah i've done that yeah
but at the end you're a lovely person
and that's what matters
um thank you for sharing your story um i
hope
of course there's so much more that i
can share
but for that i'll yeah i'm definitely
writing a book because i have so many
scenarios where it's like
you crazy girl that could have gone
really
wrong yeah