Anita Hassanandani tears up remembering alcoholic father, says she worked as a receptionist at Manoj Kumar’s office to fend for herself and her mother

 

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She said that she can now understand that her father was battling an addiction, and that makes her want to go back in time and apologise to him. “I was always very angry with him for drinking. I wouldn’t know why… now I know it is an addiction and he was also going through what he was going through. I would want to apologise for not understanding. Now that I understand he was also going through stuff, so I should have understood better,” said Anita.

Anita revealed that her father died when she was just 15 years old and was left to fend for herself and her mother. She said, “I was fifteen, fifteen and a half… After that, I didn’t know which direction to take because I was so young. My mom was alone and we were two girls. My elder sister was already married, so my family was like, ‘How are you guys going to survive?’ But they say, ‘When one door closes and another one opens’…”

 

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Asked if she was the sole bread-earner at home after her father passed away, she opened up about her first job as a receptionist at veteran actor Manoj Kumar’s son’s office. She shared, “First I actually did a job. I was a receptionist at Manoj Kumar’s son, Kunal Goswamy’s office. In fact, it was his brother who told me, ‘Why don’t you get a photoshoot done?’ That’s how it all started. It’s been so many years, I have never met them ever since, through this podcast I can thank him for giving me some direction in life. I worked there for a couple of years, then photoshoots, auditions, look tests, and here I am…”

Anita Hassanandani, who predominantly works in Hindi television serials, started her acting career by appearing in Idhar Udhar Season 2. She then made her Telugu film debut in Nuvvu Nenu in 2001, and in Tamil with Samurai and Varushamellam Vasantham, both in 2002. She then made her Hindi film debut in 2003 with Kucch To Hai. She also acted in films like aal, Krishna Cottage and Koi Aap Sa before becoming a full time TV actor.