Aditi Sharma sums up journey after winning Cinestars Ki Khoj 18 years ago: ‘Real competition started after the show’

Aditi Sharma of Gangaa fame is back as Katha in the new TV show, Katha Ankahee. The actor has come a long way from winning India’s first acting reality show, India’s Best Cinestars Ki Khoj and dabbling in Hindi, South and Punjabi films besides featuring in several television commercials. Like her character in the new show that went on air on Sony this week, Aditi too hails from a small town and has slowly and steadily made Mumbai new home. “I understand how it feels when you come to a new city, have no family here and have to start from zero,” she says. (Also read: Adnan Khan returns with Katha Ankahee, reveals giving over 4-5 auditions each day)

In an interview with Hindustan Times, Aditi opened up about her journey from a being a college girl at Delhi University to facing a stark reality after winning a reality show and eventually arriving at a junction where she feels financially and emotionally settled and secure.

Katha Ankahee is official Hindi remake of Turkish series One Thousand and One Nights, better known as Arabian Nights. She stars opposite Adnan Khan who plays her boss Viaan in the show. “Something happens due to which their lives go upside down. It’s a repentance love story which starts in very dark times. My character is much more complex and layered as compared to the characters I have played so far,” says Aditi.

Aditi was a student at the Venkateshwara College in Delhi when she got selected for Zee Cinestars Ki Khoj in 2004. She went on to win the show after beating contestants like Ankita Lokhande, Shraddha Arya and Divyanka Tripathi. As a winner, she got the lead role in a film which took three years in the making. It was Khanna & Iyer made by Subhash Ghai and Zee TV. Opening up about what happened after the show, Aditi says, “The real competition started after I won the show. We as participants were competing amongst each other and had become friends. Later, I realised this was nothing, the competition is different. When you are an outsider and have no connection in the industry, there is no one to even guide you. Guidance makes a lot of difference here. This is not like any other industry where you can reach a certain position after 10 years.”

“When our film got made after three years, there was nothing like we got many offers after it. The benefit was only till the show was on air, the media would cover us a lot and the channel promoted us a lot. I didn’t know how to go about it. I was a college student. It also wasn’t easy to approach somebody. There was no social media. I still meet people who tell me they were looking for me then and couldn’t find me,” she adds.

Subhash Ghai went on to cast Aditi in his next film, Black and White. She then bagged a Telugu film and went on to do a couple of them along with a few Hindi and Punjabi ones.

Aditi says she didn’t face financial struggle like her other actor friends but had to deal with a lot of emotional struggle. Talking about the same, he says, “You witness so much rejection over a period of long time. That’s how the industry works. I have matured over the years. My family supported me a lot. There was a time when my mum, who was a teacher, left her job to move with me to Mumbai because I used to feel so low. She was like, ‘let’s help with her career and in what she wants to do.’ They don’t come from the field at all and don’t understand anything.”

“I seldom go to Lucknow now, I like Mumbai. I have been here for 15 years. I have made friends who are like family. There is some stability financially and emotionally,” she adds.

Aditi however, has an advice for all those aspiring to become an actor and move to Mumbai. She says, “Whenever someone talks to me about joining the industry, I tell them to atleast complete their graduation and do a filmmaking course. I have not done a filmmaking course but I did my graduation. My parents had sent me back to college to complete my education after winning Cinestars Ki Khoj, saying, “jao padho, film nahi ban rahi hai abhi (go and study, the film isn’t getting made).”