Esha Gupta, in her decade-long career, has done it all on her own. And as her first film, Jannat 2 (2012), recently completed 10 years of its release, the actor opens up on how doing it without any connections or support was not easy.

“Of course, it is tough when you have no shoulder to cry on, and there is no one to guide you. Even if you are going wrong, you don’t know [it]. If you get a hit, you don’t know what you did for that hit too. No one will help. That’s the only thing I always wished I had,” confesses the 36-year-old, adding that she does realise that nothing comes easy.

Recalling the time she started out, Gupta shares that she had no plans of becoming an actor, but life took her by surprise. “I am grateful for everything I have. I didn’t even dream of becoming an actor; I was doing law. I didn’t want to do anything else. And [then] Jannat 2 happened.”

After the movie, she went on to work in films such as Raaz 3 (2012), Baadshaho (2017) andOne Day: Justice Delivered (2019). The actor is happy with how her career has charted out, and is especially grateful for the kind of music her films have had. “Jannat 2 had an amazing album. We had someone as amazing as Pritam (music director). We were lucky. Even now, college students say they love the film’s songs. Nowadays, we are making music that you don’t listen to after many years. We don’t have melodious songs [today],” she ends.