Shreya Dhanwanthary started her career with a Telugu film titled Josh (2009). Her Bollywood journey began with Why Cheat India (2019), along with Emraan Hashmi. Roles in acclaimed OTT series like The Family Man (2019) and Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story (2020) got her noticed. She mentions that R Balki cast her in his forthcoming film Chup, where she shares screen space with Dulquer Salman, Sunny Deol, and Pooja Bhatt. “I called up Balki sir and mentioned I wanted to work with him. He called me for an audition and later told me he either wanted the girl from The Family Man or Scam for this particular role. Someone pointed out that both roles were played by me and hence he auditioned me,” she reveals.Her mother belongs to Hyderabad and her father is North Indian. Both are film buffs and, hence, she grew up watching both Hindi and South films in the Middle East while growing up. The acting bug bit her early. She’s been acting since she was four. “My family used to consider academics a serious thing. So, I did Electronics and Communication Engineering from NIT, Warangal. But along with it, I also did theatre and started modelling. During my theatre days, I met casting directors like Shanoo Sharma and Bhumi Pednekar.
They
told me that I should come to Mumbai. I landed here ten years ago and have been trying to make a name for myself ever since.”
She can laugh about it now, but there was a time when she’d be in tears because she used to know next to nothing about auditions and had a hard time building up the right contacts. She was unfamiliar with Mumbai’s rains and the problems they can cause. The entrance to her building used to be flooded, and it was a chore to cross that threshold and catch a cab. Sometimes, situations were so dire that she’d worry how she’d pay the next month’s rent. “You have to look your best for the auditions. That means doing proper hair and makeup and making sure it doesn’t get spoiled on the way to the studio.
Sometimes, I was so broke I had to forgot lunch in order to pay for the cab. I’d spend many days being hungry while pursuing my dream,” she recalls. Once, her mother came home to visit and was crying the whole day, seeing the pitiable conditions her daughter was living in. Her parents offered to put her up in a better place and help her financially, but she adamantly said no, as she wanted to make it on her own. “It was my decision to carve a career in cinema. Why should I burden them with my upkeep? And going through the hardships kept me motivated to better myself,” she asserts.More than money, what was harder for her was to keep herself focused and motivated in the face of adversity. Initially, she had to face rejections daily and thought about quitting twice a day. “I was living alone, and loneliness saps your strength. You have to dry your own tears and make yourself laugh. You have to keep your spirits up because faces don’t lie. You can’t let the stress show on your face.” She adds to the outsiders vs star kids debate and says newcomers who have a base in the industry don’t have to go through all this struggle. “Star kids don’t have to worry about paying their bills on time. They have a vehicle at their disposal 24/7. They are always surrounded by their loved ones. It takes a while for people like me, who are here from a faraway place, to find decent digs, buy a car, and have enough savings to tide over a lean phase. And don’t forget, on top of all this, you’d have to maintain good fitness levels as well. So where’s the comparison between them and us?,” she questions.
And even when you make it after all the hardships, you’re in danger of being typecast. She points out that it’s harder for girls to break out of stereotypes as they’re offered a set template at most times. “You are constantly being told to maintain a certain weight, to have a certain hairstyle, to have a certain complexion. You keep hearing it and it gets suffocating. I’m lucky that I got to do something different in Scam 1992 and The Family Man. I have been in the industry for a decade, but nothing mattered until Scam. I did the miniseries Ladies Room (2016) with Yash Raj Films, and it became a big thing, and it was critically acclaimed too. But Scam and The Family Man got me recognition. I’ve realised that, apart from hard work, the other factor is luck. It’s frustrating, but that’s how it is.”
She remembers that for her audition for The Family Man, she’d have to maintain silence and only react through her expressions. But for Scam, she got a scene that ran to five-six pages. The Family Man gave her a chance to work alongside Manoj Bajpayee, someone she’d always admired for his work ethic. She says that working with him has been a learning experience. “He always asks you how you interpret a scene and then gives his analysis. You learn through this give and take. He never asserts his authority and lets you do your own thing. That’s huge, coming from such a senior actor.” She learnt from working with Pratik Gandhi as well, who she says made acting look easy and says, thanks to OTT, actors are getting to explore new territory and grow as performers. “We’re getting new things to do with every outing and, as a result, becoming better at our jobs. I’m loving this change, which couldn’t have come at a better time.”Aside from acting, Shreya is passionate about writing. She’d written a book called Fade To White (2016), which was well received on Amazon. It was a story about the different types of existential crisis faced by the common man. She’s also writing other stories. There’s talk of a show that would be based on her stories. Ultimately, she wants to direct something. “A Viral Wedding, which
I wrote and acted in, was well received.
So I know I can come up with good concepts and execute them,” she asserts. The length of the role doesn’t matter to her as long as she gets to do something substantial. She gives the example of the film Looop Lapeta (2022), where she plays Julia, who is full of contradictions, and that’s what makes her interesting. “The part offered was so delicious I couldn’t say no. I am always game for something new and crazy, and Looop Lapeta was just that,” she reflects. The actor feels that our scripts need to be aired out and cleaned because they’ve become too formulaic. She doesn’t understand why filmmakers today don’t break new ground today. “Look at filmmakers like Raj Kapoor or Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Their films were so entertaining and yet so grounded in reality. They remain so entertaining even now. I think today’s filmmakers should give a thought towards the fact that films can’t be made on set formulas and start thinking about doing original stories.”
The talk veers to her love life. Shreya says that while she’s a diehard romantic, she’s also commitment phobic and that’s why none of her various relationships have ever worked out. “I think relationships should have something that would make you want to stay. But I haven’t found that equation so far. I’ve rolled from one break-up to another and have now stopped looking for a man because I’ve understood things will happen in their own time,” she reflects. She’s a nonconformist in both her career and personal life and has learned to ignore the judgements of others, concentrating instead on doing what her heart tells us. “My life, my rules has always been my mantra. People are going to say things no matter what. Why should I compromise my life because of that?” More on: Shreya Dhanwanthary
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