Actor Nidhi Singh talks to Jigyasu Joshi about her forever dream of being an actor, life so far and how she has finally set the ball rolling for herself
She is natural on-screen, effortlessly slips into her characters, humble in real life and is adored by millennials for her portrayal of “Tanya” in the web-series, Permanent Roommates. From working in an advertising agency to becoming an assistant director to an Internet sensation and now doing films, Nidhi’s has been quiet a journey. But for her, all the success didn’t come on “one fine day”.
“Things happened gradually in my life. It was not like in the movies where one day something happens and life changes. I joined advertising. I was absolutely smitten with the charm of the advertising world. More often than not, my mind would stray into wanting to be in front of the camera but I’d think I am being stupid since I didn’t feel I was good enough to be there. However, after sometime I left the job and started doing some backstage work for theatres where I met Nidhi Bisht (casting director of TVF). She showed me one video which they made and I found it so funny that I told her that I wanted to be a part of such thing. After some time, Every Delhi girl in the world video happened and that was the start,” she said.
When the work on Permanent Roommates began, Nidhi stated that everyone was a bit apprehensive about what the outcome would be. little did they know what they were on to. The result was such that the web-series became the most viewed series ever. What was the most satisfying thing for her about doing the web-seriesIJ “Before this, I did little comedy in the sketches and the parodies. And after the Delhi girl video, people had an image of mine as a comedy actor, which I loved. But as an actor I wanted to portray the other hues of my skill too. So the most satisfying thing about doing Permanent Roommates was that it helped me to show the other shades of my acting and I am totally grateful to all the people who made that happen,” said Nidhi.
It was after the web-series that TVF became the first channel having over one million subscribers. “We had a blast that night. It is epic.”
Nidhi recalled the time when she told her parents about her plans to peruse acting. “My mother is a teacher, my father a doctor and my older brother is an engineer. So initially they couldn’t understand where my love for acting came from. Also, I was a teenager then. But they listened to what I had to say. I was after their life to let me go to Mumbai. After initial reservations, they finally let me. I was 17,” she shared.
The actress has recently finished shooting for two Bollywood films. “The first one’s a posh romantic comedy, in which I am starring alongside Saqib Saleem and Taapsee Pannu. It’s a fun film - very real, contemporary and young. Though we’ve not fixed a release date yet. The second one, Brij Mohan Amar Rahe, also has actors Arjun Mathur and Manav Vij in leading roles. It’s a rustic dark comedy, more of a satire.” she told us.
Nidhi also added that working in a film and a web-series is very similar in terms of the discipline and the amount of hard work involved. “You meet new people with every new film. It’s like going to a new class each time - you’ve got to befriend them, create a rapport. In a web series, since you are working with the same people over the seasons, you get to understand each other and develop a familiarity. It’s more like working with friends.”
After all the hard work, Nidhi today looks back with content and feel that she has finally set the ball rolling. “It is a very emotional thing for me. I never saw all this coming and now when I’m a part of it, I feel nothing but indebted to all the people who ever showed faith in me. Had they not been there, I wouldn’t have been what I’m today,” she concluded.