Among the challenges showbiz poses, Mrunal Thakur has struggled against losing hope, too. The actor reveals that it was after she gained fame on TV and wanted to get into films. “I had confidence in myself, but there was a time when I felt it’s not working out,” she shares.

“Many don’t know that I’ve been facing the camera for 10 years now. I started acting in 2012. I gave up at one point, after four-and-a-half years... The fun part is that I gave up, travelled to Indonesia for six months and lived there,” says the Jersey actor, who started off with TV shows like Mujhse Kuchh Kehti...Yeh Khamoshiyaan and Kumkum Bhagya. Thakur was also seen in the 2016 Indonesian show Tuyul & Mbak Yul Reborn.

“I was thinking of how to wipe off that image of a TV actor. It had become a stereotype. Logon ke dimaag mein ban jaata hai, along with a lot of walls — she can’t do this because she did that, she shouldn’t do this because she is doing that. People have these permutations and combinations of assumptions. It’s really disheartening sometimes,” elaborates the actor, whose initial plan was to become a journalist. “But my first and only love was the camera,” she tells us.

It was the 2018 film Love Sonia which turned her career around, as the 29-year-old admits, “I needed to be seen in a character where it’s not someone wearing kilos of makeup to look pretty. It is one of the biggest challenges for an actor — yes, she is pretty, but can she act? It was amazing to work with an international crew and Demi Moore (actor, in Love Sonia). I felt, that was the moment. It was my ticket to Bollywood,” Thakur concludes.