Coming from a family of engineers and doctors, director Anshai Lal chose to explore the uncharted territory of cinema as he always wanted to do something creative and is quite happy with his choice of career. Before helming Phillauri, Anshai started his journey in the media industry as a model. "I used to model after college for money. I was a back-up model in a Shoojit Sircar ad film, it was in 2003-2004. The main model came and I was asked to leave. But I was enamoured by this world, I found it interesting," Anshai told PTI. "I told him (Shoojit) to give me some work. I hung around the sets for a day or two. Post my school I had to do specialising in film-making and so I worked in a production house for my internship and continued working there even after college. I met Saket Chaudhary. I moved from ad films to feature films," he said. Anshai has no connection with film industry but the moment he started as a model by landing up on the sets of an ad film shoot, he was soon bitten by the bug of movie-making."My dad is a chemical engineer, my mom is a doctor and brother is a software engineer. I did modelling for two years or so. Varun Bahl is a designer friend and I did my first ramp show in 2002 when I was 17 or 18 years old," he said. "I wanted to do something around the creative field. Destiny had something else written for me. I am glad I met Saket Chaudhary and that's how my love towards cinema grew even more," he said. After being an assistant director to Chaudhary for Pyaar Ke Side Effects and also for Shimit Amin's Chak De! India, Tarun Mansukhani's "Dostana" and Sajid Khan's Housefull and Himmatwala remake, Anshai is set to make his directorial debut with Phillauri. The film features Diljit Dosanjh, Suraj Sharma and Anushka Sharma. The director says being an outsider it did get difficult for him at times to survive in the industry but that is something valid to everyone whosoever wants to make his or her career in the showbiz world. "Difficult is a very subjective term. It is hard to be here (industry), but it is hard for everybody. It's not that things are easy for those who are part of the industry," he said. Also Read: Kangana Ranaut's threat to slap Sugandha Mishra comes from years of bullying she took in Bollywood? "The harder part for newcomers is to establish connection in the film industry. Today big production houses are backing people, talent which is great," he said. Produced by Anushka's Clean Slate Films and Fox Star Studios, the romantic-comedy film will open in cinema houses on March 24.
