Shriya Pilgaonkar says she has found ‘stability’ after experiencing frustration: ‘If I compared myself to other kids from film families…’

“I look back at 2022 with so much gratitude,” Shriya tells indianexpress.com. “It makes me emotional to think all that the year gave me. As an actor I have learnt to detach myself from the result, but when you get love for the hard work, it feels special.”

The actor says the spotlight on her now feels warm as she had “enough experiences” when she worked hard but it didn’t translate into anything fruitful. Either the project fizzled out upon release or worse, never saw the light of day.

 

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“The journey previously felt a bit incomplete. May be the project was not that well received or even released. The year has given me a boost as an actor, but the confidence was always there. I would never keep my confidence as a variable. It is the uncertainty; the nature of my profession and the industry is so much that I cannot attach my self-worth to the outcome of the projects. I feel more ambitious than I have ever been. I feel this is a whole new phase of my career, I feel people are now trusting me to headline parts. That’s important.”

Shriya, daughter of veteran actors Sachin and Supriya Pilgaonkar, made her debut in 2013 with the Marathi film Ekulti Ek. Three years later, she broke out with the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Fan. But Shriya found wider acclaim with the 2018 series Mirzapur, where she played Sweety Gupta.

In between, some of her films were either not landing well or never quite taking off at all. Ali Fazal-starrer House Arrest and Bhangra Paa Le featuring Sunny Kaushal released and vanished. A project she had signed with much enthusiasm, Anubhav Sinha’s Abhi Toh Party Shuru Hui Hai, still remains unreleased.

It was a testing phase for Shriya, who says she thought if this all her career could be– of convincing herself that she has to “settle” for whatever is coming her way.

 

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“The perception that I am a good actor was not translating into better work. Of course, it made me impatient, made me wonder if I just had to settle, made me wonder if I have to accept the situation. When I felt the quality of the projects coming my way were not that exciting, or when my projects were not releasing, a part of me felt helpless, but because I had no control over it, I had to let go of it. Letting go has helped me.

“After Mirzapur I did a Netflix Original movie, which had a mixed response. Then I shot for a film with Anubhav Sinha, Abhi Toh Party Shuru Hui Hai, but then it didn’t release. Somewhere I was relying on that film at that point of time but then I let go of it.”

From 2020 onwards, Shriya accelerated–and diversified–her choices, with projects like Voot’s psychological thriller The Gone Game and Apoorva Lakhia’s actioner Crackdown before finally landing the part of Kashaf Quaze from Guilty Minds, which she says has gotten her the most love.

“Being an actor has been a spiritual journey for me. In the past four-five years, I have found some stability in terms of how I want to navigate myself in my career. I don’t want to stress myself out, and I have never been that person. I have never compared my journey to anybody else and I am so glad otherwise it would have been a very different me, if I compared myself to other kids who come from film families.

“I trust the nature of my life and what has happened thus far. There is an ease now which has naturally come in the last few years. After experiencing a frustrating time… I realised being frustrated doesn’t help, what does it do for you? The past year has given me a sense of progress in my career which I was waiting to experience,” she adds.