‘I’m so single, it’s not even funny’

Manpriya Singh 

With a Bollywood innings that didn’t really take off and constant comparisons with a successful sibling! One would think that there must be some regret lurking somewhere or some bitterness hidden here or there. Instead, Shamita Shetty is happy in her space and happy with her pace and surprisingly stands apart from an industry often defensive of its career graphs. 

“You want to know what has kept me busy all this while or what is keeping me busy now,” she is composed and communicative. “I am shooting for a web series that is a comic thriller and a very interesting script with a bunch of good actors,” shares the actress, while in the city shooting for the web series. “I don’t want to reveal too much,” she adds while admitting to have missed acting all this while. “It’s only now I am realizing how much I have missed acting all this while.”

While on a break 

A long hiatus wasn’t a conscious decision. “The wait for the right script just got a little long and I didn’t want to settle down for any thing less. Especially after Zeher, when the shift in my career happened. I wanted to do only better characters,” says the actress, for whom Bollywood wasn’t even a childhood dream. 

“In fact, I pursued commerce in college only to find it very boring.” Fashion designing stint under Manish Malhotra happened and lately, “All this while I went to study in London and came back and worked at an architect’s firm.” 

Shilpa, my sister  

It’s rare to come across star siblings, kids, spouses admitting to things being easy for them in the industry. “Yes, but that is a fact. Having Shilpa for an elder sister did make things easy for me. In the sense that I didn’t have to go through what other newcomers have to.  The backing did help and I not only learnt from my mistakes but from her mistakes as well.” 

Any ‘best’ friends from the industry? 

Even before she’ll give you the names, she’ll clarify the fact that her best friends are not from the industry. “If you are talking about friends whom you can talk to about anything, then they are not from the industry. I think, film industry, by its very nature is such that makes everybody insecure. So you never know who really is happy for you and who is not.” She adds, “You know what I mean right?” 

Yes, Shamita, every girl out there sure knows what you mean. Having said that, she does take one name that stands apart, “Rocky S is a great friend.” 

manpriya@tribunemail.com