16-year-old Krystle Dsouza worked for a full month without leave, was paid ‘Rs 2500 per day’ by Balaji: ‘My dad was apprehensive’

Krystle was offered her debut serial Kahe Naa Kahe by Ekta Kapoor herself. “I have a few profiles, wrote Krystle on a placard and said my name. They shared it with Ekta ma’am, she saw that and said, ‘Krystle with a K? That’s interesting’. That’s when I did a meeting with her, that night itself. 9X was a new channel, they were coming up with a few TV shows and she asked me to become the lead,” she shared.

The actor further added, “I told her that I couldn’t speak Hindi properly, I was 16-year-old, I was just a little girl. She asked me if I want to do it or not. I just asked, ‘Mujhe paise milenge (will I get paid)?’ I had to justify to my parents that why I am doing this. My mom was in the meeting, she kept quiet, but was doubtful about explaining it to my dad.”

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When asked if she remembers her first cheque, Krystle replied, “I do. I worked 30 days a month and I was getting very little money. For me, that amount was humungous. I don’t think my family would have seen that kind of a first cheque. It was Rs 2500 per day, which is I think around Rs 75000 for that month. I gave it to my mother and we both were crying.”

The actor admitted that she wasn’t well groomed while shooting that serial and looks back at it with “cringe”. “I was so bad in that show, itni buri acting karahi thi mai. It was cringe, when I think about it now. But, I worked on myself, never gave up and look where I am at,” she expressed.

Talking about her father’s reaction to her acting career, she revealed that he was always “apprehensive”, but started accepting it gradually. “He wasn’t able to understand the concept of a girl working for 12-13 hours and coming home at night. It’s justified because I was also very young. But, my mom supported me a lot, she used to accompany me to the set daily for 12 hours. It’s not easy to sit in a room for that long,” she said.

Krystle continued, “My dad wasn’t happy with me in the beginning. He thought that I am just being rebellious and don’t want to focus on my studies. But, I saw little changes slowly. If I did a calender shoot, he used to keep it on his office table. If I do an interview, he sends it on his family groups. Very subtly, he accepted it and he is very proud of me.”

The world of glitz and glamour doesn’t come with pre-conceived notions and judgements, and that was a part of the actor’s journey to success. “The entire family raised a lot of questions, including my dad, about how I’ll do it at such a young age. There are bad people in this industry. But, it has been 17 years, I’ve never had a bad experience. And even if there has been, I know how to tackle it. I know my value,” she concluded.

On the work front, Krystle Dsouza recently shared screen space with Munawar Faruqui in First Copy. Their web show is streaming on Amazon MX Player.