In Lucknow for an interactive session at a film festival, actor Sudhanshu Pandey, better known as Vanraj Shah from Anupamaa, made the most of this opportunity to interact with aspiring actors and his fans. He shared, “I always feel good when I get to interact with the newer generation. I feel very responsible when I am asked about my life’s journey because I am also from a small town. I came into this industry all by myself with no godfather and no one to guide or help me. I had zero knowledge about the industry and how things function here.”

Sudhanshu added, “I have had a slow, but steady growth. So today, if I am living in a good house and driving a good car, all these things have been earned through a lot of pain, troubles, ups and downs, and all the internal fights that one goes through living in a city like Mumbai. Life’s quite difficult in Mumbai. And forget about competing with others. . . you have to compete with yourself first and that is really tough. So it was nice interacting with aspiring actors and telling them what goes on into an actor’s life. I also shared the many mistakes that I have made in my career which can be a learning lesson for many.”

What are the mistakes he wished he hadn’t committed? “There isn’t one that I can highlight. When I look back, there were some mistakes that I made, but then I corrected them the next time. For example, I never had a plan when I started. I now think that one should always have a rough plan in mind. Of course, we go with the flow in this field, but there is a certain amount of planning that can help us, so we don’t take random decisions,” he said.

The actor is doing well today, but has he ever felt insecure financially over the years? “I have had financial insecurity many times. That is a part and parcel of our job because there is said that, the overall scenario has improved a lot and one can always save for a rainy day. Also today, there are umpteen channels and a lot of work happening on so many platforms,” he shared.

Coming back to Anupamaa, the show was recently trolled for a track that netizens felt was regressive. When we asked Sudhanshu about it, he said, “The show has been a very progressive show and we have always addressed various relevant issues. What happens is that when you are running a daily soap, the writers are non-stop churning out content. I know viewers have a lot of expectations from the show. Sometimes you run out of ideas and exhaust some plot points, it is human. But again there will be something that will get the audience talking. Television as a medium is extremely difficult because we have to meet the expectations of the audience on a daily basis, which is unreal! You can’t constantly be on top of the game. Everything has its share of ups and downs,” he ended.