I was always intrigued by the performing arts. Soon after leaving school, I was in a Roshan Abbas play called Graffiti Postcards from School. It was a lot of fun and made me realise that acting was what I wanted to do in life. While doing theatre, I got offers to host live shows and radio programmes.

One thing led to another and I got my first break in films while I was shooting the travel show, Dream Destinations, in Vishakhapatnam. It was an English movie titled Valentine’s Day and I recall travelling for some 55 hours and directly going to the studio for the audition. I found 15 to 20 other people waiting to audition but I was asked to audition ahead of them. The next morning, I got a call informing me that I had been selected.

Looking back, the chat show, Dangerous (on Zoom), and the movie, Zeher, have been the biggest turning points of my career so far. Dangerous, a chat show based on sex and to promote AIDS awareness, gave me recognition.

I auditioned for Zeher as I was recommended to the Bhatts by the casting director. It was my first break in the movies and therefore an important milestone for me. While shooting, Kunal Deshmukh, an assistant director of the film, liked my work and wanted to do a film with me. That’s how he offered me a role in Jannat, which was directed by him.

Right now my plate is full and I am doing Men’s HQ, a part of Touching Lives, a presentation by Apollo Hospitals on NDTV Good Times. The show is about how urban Indian men should deal with lifestyle diseases and how ordinary men have transformed their unhealthy lifestyles and now live healthy lives.

Some of my upcoming films include Begunah by Jagmohan Mundra, Good Morning Zindagi by Ravi Rai, Shaadi Ke Side Effects by Indrajeet Lankesh and Mumbai Cutting by Manish Jha.

(As told to Promita Mukherjee)