Wanted In America

I’m in New York City now; acting in an American soap. I love living here,I feel like I belong here. It’s the city for young,vibrant,ambitious people and it’s so pretty right now,despite the frigid temperature and snow. Of course,I miss home,family and friends and hope to be back to do more films soon.

From my salad days as a VJ to being part of an ensemble cast on one of America’s best-known shows has been a long journey. Acting was an accidental vocation for me. I was 16 years old,in my first year at St Xavier’s College,Mumbai,when a scout recruited me to do a commercial. This led to more commercials,followed one day by a call from MTV to audition for a VJ spot. Before I knew it,I was on a plane to Singapore hosting shows for MTV Asia.

I didn’t really know much in the beginning. I had watched VJs like Nonnie,Kamal Sidhu,Danny McGill,Cyrus Broacha and Malaika Arora be themselves. So I did the same. Luckily people responded well and soon I was flying around the world,earning more than I ever imagined. I had my own show by the time I was 19. How many teenagers can boast of that? MTV didn’t let us know how popular our shows were,so I had no idea at the time that youngsters ran home from school to watch it. It happened so quickly,I did not realise that I had the best job in the world. I kept telling myself I needed to get a real job. I had a lot of spare time,since I shot 5-6 shows at a time,once or twice a week,so I assisted photographers,took writing classes and assisted on film sets on the side.

This idyllic period came to an end in 2005 — with office politics and arguments with my boss. Maybe I had turned over-confident and bratty — because the channel let me go in the middle of my contract at the peak of my popularity. I had worked with MTV my whole life; it was my first job and I didn’t know what to do. I was MTV’s Shenaz except that there was no MTV anymore. My friends were all MTV employees; my whole life had been MTV. It was a difficult time. I couldn’t watch or discuss the channel for two years after that. Channel V obviously wouldn’t take me on,while other channels like Star or Zee found me too “MTV”.

I did a few films. Ishq Vishk (2004) was a hit but somehow I ended up not pursuing a film career. My heart was set on having my own show back. So when I was offered a show in Asia (MTV Asia) I immediately hopped onto a plane,moved to Hong Kong and eventually to Bangkok to do three seasons of Whatever Things. Fortunately,during my MTV stint,I had learned how to produce. I have always been a good writer,so I could be more than just a VJ. When Whatever Things ended,I wrote out a treatment for my dream show called Culture Shock,about strange and shocking cultures. I invested in a pilot for it and flew a team out to Malaysia to shoot. I tried shopping the show around for a year in India,and even flew to Singapore to try and pitch it to Discovery Asia,to no avail. Asia wanted to see beautiful hotels and spas,while my show was grittier in nature. Then one day,out of the blue,I got a call from Howard Lee,president of Discovery Travel Channel USA ,saying that he watched my pilot and wanted the show for the US. I was over the moon.

I acted in a few more Indian films,nothing really worth talking about except Delhi Belly. Someone from Kiran Rao’s office saw me walking down Pali Hill and called me in to audition for Dhobi Ghat. I did and the next day I got a call from Aamir Khan’s office to audition for Delhi Belly and I landed a role in that movie instead.

The beginning of 2010 was the hardest for me,I had nothing. I felt lost. I tried to do many things,contacted channels,even pitched show ideas to news channels. Nobody was reading a screenplay I’d written. I felt sad,redundant and alone. Things began looking up in June 2010,when I got a call from Yash Raj’s Ashish Patil who had read my script and commissioned my partner and me to write their first youth film.

This was followed by my casting in One Life to Live. I never even imagined I’d be doing this; I have never watched a soap in my life. It’s actually more challenging than one can imagine. I go in with all my lines,we block and then shoot all the scenes together,like a play and they edit it live. All live. No second takes,no room for mistakes. It’s boot camp for actors and great for memorisation. I have over 15 scenes in any given day and we shoot it all together,non-stop like a play. One of my favourite parts is that I get to wear my dream clothes from designers like DVF and Nennette Lapore. These are designers I’ve lusted after for years,but have never been able to afford. And here I am wearing their clothes everyday on the sets.