Akanksha Puri, who played one of the leads in Madhur Bhandarkar's Calendar Girls, has switched to TV and will be seen playing Goddess Parvati in the show Ganesha. Ask her if it was the paucity of roles in Bollywood that drew her to television and she says, “After Calendar Girls, I was offered only erotic roles which didn't make any sense. I wanted to do something different and acted in a few films down South, too. But considering the reach that television has today, I felt it would be challenging to play Goddess Parvati.“

Ask her if she was disillusioned or experienced the casting couch, because of which she had to leave Bollywood, and she answers, “No, I will continue working in Bollywood. As far as compromises or casting couch issues are concerned, it all depends on the woman. If she does not feel desperate or insecure about her career, she doesn't need to compromise.“ Her role in Calendar Girls was quite bold and her pictures in bikinis have been doing the rounds on social media. So, how comfortable is she playing the role of Goddess Parvati? “People are making a big deal of me wearing a bikini. I wore it for hardly 20 seconds, but unfortunately, only those pictures are floating around on social media,“ she retorts.

While the actress considers Madhur Bhandarkar her mentor, she started her career with Dr Vijay Mallya's airline as an air hostess. Ask her if she is in touch with the controversial business tycoon and she says, “Whatever happened is sad. But my experience of working with the organisation was good.“