Actor Rupali Ganguly claims she had no plans to return to work after becoming a mum. “When my son was born in 2015, I didn’t want anything else,” she shares, adding, “I just wanted to focus on him and enjoy every millisecond of motherhood. Because I became a mother late in life, those moments were especially precious to me.”

However, she did return to the screen and her current show Anupamaa is quite popular. The 44-year-old admits that she only agreed to it because it was time for her son to start school and she assumed he would be in school. But things turned out differently due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

“I thought it was the right time to begin working, not realising that Covid ka lockdown ho jaayega [and schools will be shut]. When a show was offered to me, my husband (Ashwin K Verma, businessman) said it was high time I got my due as an actor. He has been managing everything since, single-handedly. Unfortunately, I can’t be there [for my son]. I feel like a failure.”

Ganguly says she is at the shoot all day, away from her son, considering she is the show’s lead. “I am there all the time. There is a standing joke, ki set ka gate main kholti hoon aur main hi band karti hoon. You kind of sacrifice your family time, health, sleep, and a lot of other things to follow a dream... It does get extremely difficult at times,” she ends.