Aneri Vajani: I wanted to work on my terms, and I did it

Aneri Vajani made her acting debut in 2012 with the show Kaali: Ek Punar Avatar. Ten years on, she is glad that she followed her instinct and stuck to characters she found “powerful and meaningful”.

“I was only 19 years old when I started out in the industry. So, I did not want to wear sarees and play a bahu in a soap opera. I wanted to do characters that were both powerful and meaningful. I needed to be patient and look for roles that I was interested in. That is where I had to struggle the most. I wanted to work on my own terms, and I’m pleased to say that I was able to do so,” she says, adding, “If you look at the work I’ve done, it’s very versatile. I may not have done 50 shows, but what I did was extremely satisfying to me.”

Looking back at where it all began, Vajani shares how everyone around her — from her parents to her school principal — knew she would be an actor one day. The 28-year-old recalls, “Though my family was quite averse to the idea of me becoming an actor, somewhere, they knew that I was meant for this industry. I was always interested in extracurricular activities as a child. I used to compete in dancing and singing competitions and win them all. Even my principal told my parents, ‘Yeh ladki toh badi hokar heroine hi banegi’.”

But, despite her strong interest in the performing arts, the Laal Ishq actor tells us she decided to “not go crazy about it”. “I told myself that if it’s meant to be, things will fall in place. Also, everyone had told me ki bahut stress aur struggle hota hai,” she says. Things, however, changed when she did her first show: “I realised that this is something I thoroughly enjoy.”

Now that Vajani has completed a decade here, is there anything about the industry she would like to change? “This is a thankless industry. If one thing goes wrong, all your 100 good things will be overlooked, and people will begin to focus solely on the negative. We need to understand that all of us mess up sometimes,” she ends.