Kalki Koechlin didn’t get any film roles for 2 years after Dev D; lived on vada pao, traveled in local trains

Kalki Koechlin made her debut in the movies with Anurag Kashyap’s DevD and her performance in the film was quite appreciated. But despite the appreciation that she received at the time, along with some fame, Kalki did not get another acting gig for the next two years. Kalki opened up about this phase of her life in a recent chat and also spoke about choosing certain kinds of work just for its monetary benefits.

In a chat with After Hours with All About Eve, Kalki said that her first major low in her professional career happened right after Dev D. “Right after Dev D, I didn’t have another film for about two years. I think the next film was Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.” Kalki shared that for those two years, she did a play that she put together after winning a prize of Rs 1 lakh. When asked how she managed her finances during this time, Kalki said that she lived on vada pao and traveled in local trains.

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Kalki Koechlin shared that she has the image of a successful person when in fact, she is a lot less successful than what people think. “People know me and see my face and everyone is really familiar with me but then they are really surprised to see me on public transport. They say, ‘How can you not be with a bodyguard?’ Like it’s this weird dichotomy where somehow I have an image which is bigger than who I really am,” she said.

Kalki then shared that she has come a long way since her early days in the movies and she is fully aware when she takes up a job just for money, and those, she said, are normally corporate gigs. “There are things that I do just for money,” she said and added, “Mostly like corporate gigs. Things where you know it’s an exchange, where they want your face and you want the money.”