In an exclusive conversation with The Pioneer, actress Soundarya Sharma takes us through her formative years and her stints at the Bigg Boss house.
Shikha Duggal
After months of entertaining audiences across the globe, Bigg Boss 16 has come to an end now, but the whirring is still unstoppable.We had another trending contestant, Soundarya Sharma from the house, who recently received praise from actor Anupam Kher, to keep the buzz going. She was his co-star in Ranchi Diaries, and such is the glory she always awaits in her career.
“I was preparing for the IAS before, and simultaneously, I was taking acting classes. Not just that, I was hopping to the hospital to do my internship too. Even though I belong to a conservative Brahmin family, my parents have always paved the way for larger-than-life opportunities for me.
None of the contestants tried to break through to me in a real sense—all because we are in a glamorous industry and people just can’t go beyond our “good looks,” the former Bigg Boss contestant explained.
The actress asserts that her efforts for the reality television show were underrated, and she says, “I believe in talking only when you’re spoken to. I wasn’t desperate. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon, either, and yet here I was on the country’s most contentious reality television show, showcasing everything I had, including my athletic abilities.Contestants have made it more about amplifying than “doing”. For example, Priyanka Chahar talks so much that it started to seem like the other women out there do “nothing” to survive in the house.”
Did you know, it was another doctor who suggested she go try acting. And Soundarya knew nothing about where to start-“It was my yoga trainer who led the actual route towards acting for me. One fine day, he comes up to me and says, “What are you doing in the hospital, and why are you not there at a film festival?” I met a few casting directors there. One of them invited me to Bombay; my mother, in the first instance, announced a big no. She was petrified of hearsay about casting couches. All these perspectives changed when I started working. My grooming sessions were in fact done by the Yash Raj Studios.”
When she was inside, her web show was doing amazingly well, and promotions were at an all-time high. Yes, she missed being a part of the promotions, but she was doing what she’s known to do best — creating fire for all the viewers to compensate for all the love they have always been showering on her. She said, “Odd things also sometimes fall into place, just like my friendship with Archana Gautam.
For the masses, it could be a questionable bond at first, but the stars aligned so much that viewers started loving our bond. I never believed in the number game inside the house. I was able to see how most of them were safeguarding each other, and I was on my own like a lone wolf. I didn’t want to be a cheerleader over there! My medical life came in handy for me in that house, I became a people’s person.
Whereas I am accustomed to feeling the pain of others, a few of the contestants were only spreading negativity. Oh “yeh colors face hai”, let’s bond with him/her — that’s not me.”
She believes Sajid Khan is correct when he calls her a terrible manipulator because she completely agrees with him. She then spoke at length, “When Shalin Bhanot was passing defaming statements about me, as a true blue warrior, nothing affected me. It was absolutely baseless, and I took the right stance by not retaliating.
It just showed how Shalin was brought up. He then approached me, apologised uncountable times, and I finally gave in. I can’t hush up my generosity for a stranger! Men are more jealous than women these days. Few of them can see a woman climbing the ladder of success; they are envious and then resort to character assassination.”
She was being slandered on national television, but the actress very well knew how to maintain her dignity intact, and she can’t wait to ooze some more fire on our screens now with three upcoming massive projects.
