Tapsee called me
and,
said, I have this story that I want you to read.
Imtiaz is the reason why I'm here
When he came to give me a hug just to give his wishes
You dare!
So good, man!
So my guest on this show today has just not been a rockstar in her childhood
but she continues to be a rockstar even today
She's not that naive because she is rock solid and has paved her way
in the industry today, can you guess who she is?
Come with me!
So welcome, Sanjana welcome to Pinkvilla
Thank you Thank you so much
Pink indeed! yeah
Fully pink! I was just telling the guys if Pinkvilla had a restaurant
it would be like this it would be exactly like this
Yeah Perfect
So how have you been, tell me what's been up?
I have been-
I think I have had some of the busiest and craziest few months
of my life at least yet, on Dhak Dhak it's been like 87 different locations
in 45 days, so I haven't slept in the same bed for a single night continuously
now for the last two months
But do you believe that you're blessed to stay busy?
Oh yeah because they say that
Absolutely yeah I mean I think 100% and I have always felt that
you know even since I was a kid and even in school and I just
My mind used to always be like, if there are 14 waking hours
What can I do to make sure that each of these hours is not
not like hyper-productive but when I'm feeling like okay I have done something today
because that feeling is the best so you go to bed feeling very satisfied
Staying busy is definitely a blessing
So you don't procrastinate?
No, I'm too much of a I'm that way
Focused Yeah!
The nerd in me kicks in and then it's like don't procrastinate so,
even if I'm like hanging out with friends till late at night
I'll sleep a little less but I will have to wake up in the morning
and get pilates done or read that book because
I need to do that for myself, it's not because of any other reason
So, as you said you usually read a book or do pilates so,
We're actually shooting this interview in the morning
I want to know if not this interview what would Sanjana
be doing at this hour?
So, Sanjana has not had a life of her own for the past few months
Typically, right now I can only imagine myself yanking on to a flight
or running somewhere but if it's like a
Regular day at home, here,
It's always like waking up and doing yoga, it's a given
so it's between yoga and pilates and getting a book in and a solid breakfast
and then just carrying on with work
I really want to know, does yoga help?
Like in what way? In terms of your mental peace how has it helped you?
As an actor, and with the chaos that surrounds us
with all the noise you have to find your own mechanisms to find your centre
so because you know you keep hearing do you get your moments alone
x-y-z-, the reality is you don't! so you have to create those moments
So it's not yoga like hectic Ashtanga where I'm doing like
one and a half hours, sometimes it's a 15 minutes flow
and sometimes it's 45 minutes,
but it's something,
so that your body doesn't feel lost because someday you're in Leh
and someday you're in Dubai you can feel very you know
out of- overwhelmed
Overwhelmed. Yeah.
One dark side of your job that is not as glamorous as it looks
I wouldn't say the dark side because I think that's too harsh but
There are many things that you have to make peace with you know
One of the major ones for me has been to realise and accept that
you can't be there for friends and family the way you want to
and you can't be around them as much as you want to so
If for the last two and a half months I haven't slept on my own bed
That also meant that I haven't got mom's hug or dad's
you know words of wisdom in the morning that get me going
and missed my best friend's wedding for example
or not been there for
their promotion at work, just small things like that but
They also understand and you're blessed if you have a support system that
truly understands!
how do you make it up? With them.
You know I used to take a lot of pressure and a lot of guilt initially
because I've been that friend, I am a very passionate friend
I'll try and be there, I'll go out of my way I'll catch a flight not sleep and make it but
When I can't, I can't and now they understand that
Like, I'm missing my brother's 30th birthday in 5 days and I know
That I'm missing it, there's nothing we can do about it you know
Do you believe in what's your route of manifestation?
My manifestations are very internal
I don't think I verbalise them to myself also fully.
Oh really?
Yeah. There's no gratitude journal happening?
There's gratitude but there's no like,
If you ask me what are my, five-year plans or like
at 16 if you had asked me what's your dream
I wouldn't have been able to tell you
I just vaguely knew you know
Even the fact where you said about I did not think of myself
what is going to happen in two years down the line, there was a really
interesting thing that Vicky Kaushal said once,
He was like he was asked where do you see yourself 5 years from now
And he said if I give myself five years from now
I'm going to limit myself to that Absolutely,
What if the universe has bigger plans for me?
And I think that's what has happened to you.
Absolutely. It was Om's screening
The other day and
Imtiaz was the reason why I'm here when he came to give me a hug
Just to give his wishes
That's the one thing we spoke about it was that, if you would have
written down in a diary that you know at 13 I would do Rockstar
and then at 25, I would be
where I am right now,
We couldn't have written those things down so let things happen
But not in the sense that sit back and let things happen
I believe that luck only works when it meets hard work
But what do you do on days when things are not going according
to what you think or what you planned, how do you cope with those days?
When I was 21-22 when I was new to all of this
I used to feel so overwhelmed and
sometimes confused and sometimes lost sometimes you know
because so many things are happening to you so fast
But then through the pandemic,
patience is something that we've all, I think all of us have just
it's ingrained, so now the fact that things take their own time
Things will not always go your way
I've actually understood these things, it's not just quotes on a book anymore
You know what I'm very curious to know is
such a bright student like you said so into her studies, very nerdy
What did your parents have to say when you chose this path
When Rockstar happened my mom is a working person
my parents worked together, she voluntarily told dad
that you take care of stuff for this period because I have to go with Sanj
We flew overnight to Dharamshala we were in Dharamshala
we were in Srinagar, you know
she was there with me every single day
because at that time I was only 13 years old
And after that when the acting bug bit on Rockstar
and I just wanted to audition all the time
From Delhi, I'm a Delhite sitting in Delhi mom used to take-
Dad used to co-act with me in auditions, my father has for ads,
the setup used to be like
Come back from school and change quickly
Some casting director has sent a brief and this is like 2012-13
So WhatsApp and all, we couldn't even send files
So it was a very physical process
So the brilliant casting director, Anmol Ahuja, Mukesh Chhabra
They all would send their people from Delhi to the house
What are you saying?
And my father would co-act with me or my mom would shoot
Or my best friends in my school canteen would take my auditions so
It's all the people that are in my life have contributed to
everything yeah
What was it like when yo got to know that you were doing this film
Rockstar, and that too with Ranbir Kapoor because I know
you weren't very starstruck but what was that experience like?
Still as a 13-year-old, was it your- you were not starstruck generally
or was it you were too young to understand
I think it was that that helped
When I landed in Dharamshala and gave my first shot
with Jordan in front of me and
Imtiaz behind the camera I felt at ease
I was like, how's this possible how can you be at such ease
And those are the moments when you realise that
this is it that you're in love
Like this is love
This process of like you
first auditioning and now getting to narrations
it's very overwhelming
You know I still haven't, I still get
a shock everytime
my manager tells me that we have this narration setup you know with XYZ person
Because,
because for me auditioning has been life, it has been
it's like muscle memory you know,
you feel like to get an opportunity of course you have to audition
everyone at zee for example, with Om told me that
they called me and gave me this 20 minutes snippet narration and
I'm almost like okay what should I do now?
you know and they were like, don't do anything
We want you to be our leading girl
Just say yes or no.