Actress Sanjana Sanghi.
Credit: Instagram/sanjanasanghi96
Dil Bechara actress Sanjana Sanghi on the sidelines of IIFA 2025 shared the kind of roles she has been on the lookout for, and how her journey has been so far. In conversation with Deccan Herald's Riddhi Kaushik, the actress shared how she has grown over time from Rockstar to Dhak Dhak and Kadak Singh, and what she plans to do next.
Excerpts:
Hi and welcome to Deccan Herald. Let's jump right in. You started with Rockstar when you were very young. You were a Kathak dancer back then. So after completing Rockstar, did you decide just then that you want to be an actor?
I think I somewhere decided it in my heart. I just felt a feeling that I had never felt before which was of being so comfortable on a film set. And it never felt like acting was alien to me. But I had never been trained before Rockstar. It was my first tryst with acting, so to say. But I was so young and from such a different world in Delhi, not connected to the movies in any way that for a long time, I never believed that it could be a full-fledged reality. Even though Rockstar had happened for me. So I just decided that 'no, I'm gonna keep studying and on the side I'll keep acting' so that I don't pressurise this desire too much. Because I feel when you really want something too much, it sometimes keeps going away from you. So I just adopted that approach and went with my heart. And I guess it was meant to happen then eventually when Dil Bechara happened.
When you did Rockstar you were very young. So I'm sure you weren't taking decisions for yourself.
You'll be surprised. I actually was, and I salute my parents for that. They've always given my brother and me so much agency to do what we want. They made us aware of the constraints that we have, but they have just given us all the love and care and freedom, and I never had to take permission, so to say. In fact my dad would let my mom come with me to Rockstar set, to all the ads I did after that, and handle the home and the work himself.
When you did Rockstar with Imtiaz Ali and went back to school after that, were you like- 'make way, make way. I'm a star now'?
I'm the last person to do that. But everything did change. I can't deny that. I remember my first day in school after I came back from Dharamshala, from Rockstar's first schedule. It was different. It was completely different.
Was the change external or more from within yourself?
Not within myself, but everything around me did change. Like juniors and seniors. Everyone just knew you all of a sudden, you know, so it was like that mini pap experience, High School Musical type.
So have you been able to get back to Kathak?
Yeah, I've actually. So I had to stop Kathak when I was 18 because I had a severe knee injury while doing chakkars on stage. So I went into rehab for many years when I was slowly getting back into it. It's just the most beautiful thing I think any classical art form is. It grounds you.
In the first half of your career, you have done Kathak, in the second half, acting. If you were to pick, which one would it be?
I can't tell you how much I personally feel being a dancer, a trained dancer, helps. I think it gives you a sense of rhythm, a sense of musicality, just the comfort with performing in general that I think really helps me as an actor. So I see them as hand in glove. I've also been trained by Ashley Lobo for 13 years and ironically, Ashley sir was the choreographer on Rockstar as well. So it was all just kind of a familiar face on set. I think every actor should either train themselves in classical singing or dancing or whatever, because it really helps.
You are also the youth champion at UNDP. So any message for young people out there?
I have so many things to say. But I think, to put it simply, it's what I said when I was invited to the General Assembly in New York as well. We need to be the architects of our own future, not the inheritors of it. We get to decide what we want to do. We don't just inherit what somebody else expects us to do. And I think we should know that we have that power and agency in us.
Your range of movies varied. You have done Kadak Singh, you have done Dhak Dhak. Your characters were always very different. So what do you think of when you're picking a script? How does that process happen?
I would still say it's an evolving process because acting is just one of those things like Adrien Brody in his Academy speech also said that "It's the one thing which goes as fast as it comes." And if that's his learning after a three decade long career, I just find myself that every time I enter a narration, or a screen test, it feels like the first time, and that keeps me grounded. It has been a conscious effort to not repeat roles.
What genre are you still looking to explore?
I am dying to do a hard core comedy role. My immediate family keeps calling me a joker. Pankaj sir while Kadak Singh and Ratna ma'am in Dhak Dhak also said that you should try comedy. So that is my goal.
Any star that you are looking to collab with for comedy?
Abhishek Banerjee, I have known him for years, and Rajkumar. They are both amazing!