Joining the insiders vs outsiders discussion, actor Radhika Madan is of the opinion that not having a film background is a huge drawback and to substantiate this, she recalls her initial days in Bollywood which were full of challenges.

“We outsiders don’t have the luxury of choice,” she says, adding, “When I started out, it wasn’t like a line of scripts were lying with me, and I could choose the best or zero in on the director or banner to debut with. Tab yeh tha ki jo ho raha hai aur achha lag raha hai, mujhe mil jaye bus. It’s not easy as an outsider.”

Though Madan still auditions, she says that after Angrezi Medium, she has “some freedom to decide”. Having faced rejections, the actor has also spoken about losing out on Student Of The Year 2, and being told by a casting director that she isn’t beautiful. “I did lose a project to a star kid, but then my audition also didn’t go well. However, when you’re told you’re a good actor but not pretty enough, at the age of 20, it shakes your confidence,” rues Madan.

Madan further shares that from there on, she started questioning herself after every rejection. “And now, I take time to understand if the criticism is constructive or based on some preconditioning. It’s not like if someone is saying that you need to work on your skills, I would brush it off. I listen to everything and work on myself,” she adds.