While many confused actor Hasleen Kaur to be a debutant when her two projects, Milli and CAT, released one after the other in 2022, she was actually marking a comeback. Kaur made her debut in 2014 with Karle Pyaar Karle (KPK).

Talking about her career not taking off, she says, “KPK was a brilliant film, but it didn’t do much for my career. It wasn’t well received and got lost in the humdrum, as there were many films that released at the same time.”

While she did get some offers and auditioned for other projects, many “did not see the light of the day”. Taking it in her stride, she says, “That’s just a part and parcel of any actor’s life. When you sign projects, some work and some don’t.”

During the last eight years, the 34-year-old continued to take on modelling assignments and audition for projects. However, during the Coronavirus pandemic, the concept of self-tests, where one recorded clips for the audition, helped her immensely. “The pandemic has changed a lot of things. When I was doing self-tests, I was able to review my work. Doing auditions in a restrained environment, in a casting agent’s office, wasn’t going well for me. But with self-tests, I could record 10 tapes and just send the one that I felt good about. Maybe that worked for me. And now, I’m back,” she explains.