Actor Radhika Madan, who gained popularity after playing the role of ‘Ishaani Parikh’ in a romantic daily-soap ‘Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi’. She then shifted to movies with Vishal Bhardwaj’s comedy-drama Pataakha in 2018. Revealing to Official Human Of Bombay about the period when she began auditioning for movies, Radhika Madan said, “I was told I needed to have a particular shape and size, and that I needed surgery. But mujhe toh main bahut sahi lagti hun. Who are these people to tell me I’m not pretty?”
The ‘Angrezi Medium’ actor started her story by sharing how she walked into showbiz. She said, “As a kid, I was happy in my own world doing my own thing; I was a queen. I was really mischievous and would sometimes even puncture tyres for fun! Growing up, I had a unibrow and hardly got attention from boys, but I didn’t care; I felt I was pretty. And whenever anyone asked, ‘What do you want to do when you grow up?’ I’d say, ‘Shaadi’! I loved the taamjham! But I became passionate about dancing and dreamt of going to Broadway. My parents were supportive. At 17, I auditioned for a TV show and within 3 days I was in Bombay, shooting. But it was tough. I barely got time to sleep, which led to me gaining a few kilos.”
Further in her piece of struggle to prove herself as an actor in Bollywood, she added, “But for the next 1.5 years I didn’t get work. It’s easy to doubt yourself at such a Time, but I knew the journey is more important than the destination. So, I made an effort to enjoy my auditions! Soon, I signed my first film as other projects followed. I remember I’d gained 12 kgs for a role to look older, and I auditioned for a 17-year-old character, both in a month! But I had only one motto – just have fun! That audition turned out to be one of my best and I got the part!”
