Saanand Verma: Despite new avenues, acting is the world's most difficult job

MUMBAI:  As he continues to impress his fans with his performances, 'Babli Bouncer' actor Saanand Verma says that acting is not an easy profession to pursue, adding that it's very important to completely become your character, and in the process, forget yourself in order to succeed.

Verma said: "Acting is the most difficult job in the world to do because honest acting is all about forgetting yourself and getting into a different character."

"So, it is very important that you forget yourself and become someone else and you have to do it over and over again. It is definitely a very difficult job and scenarios are always different and different kinds of challenges keep coming with changing times."

The 'Bhabiji Ghar Par Hain' actor said: "In today's scenarios, there are a lot of opportunities as compared to say 20 years back, there was no OTT. There were not so many channels back then.

"Right now, there are so many TV channels, so many OTT platforms, and a lot of theatres. So there is content creation happening everywhere. A lot of people are making films and web series, television serials, and many more things like docu-series.

"There are too many opportunities for actors. At the same time, the number of actors have also increased. There are a lot of actors now. So definitely, if the actor is talented, he or she is going to get work because this job demands talent.

"That is the first priority for any casting director or director or producer that the actor should be talented. So real talent will get work and this is actually very true in today's scenario as well, not like the earlier days.

"There are new filmmakers who are highly qualified and ready to explore and ready to take risks and do fresh things, different things so they are always looking for talents."

About the most challenging part of acting, he said: "The biggest challenge for me has always been that I'm supposed to forget myself and I'm supposed to turn into someone else completely like physically, mentally, emotionally."

"In a very genuine way, I'm supposed to change entirely. All my real characteristics are supposed to be forgotten by me and I'm supposed to create new characteristics, and character traits. I have to become someone who I never even imagined in my life.

"So, forgetting your own character, and becoming someone else is the most challenging part for me and I think for all the genuine, honest actors I think this should be the biggest challenge."

He concluded by saying: "The most challenging part of my journey was that we didn't have money and I struggled a lot and later I got a great corporate job after a very long financial struggle."

"But I was still unhappy because I'm an actor and I never wanted to do a corporate job in my life. So, I was just doing it for my kitchen, just to pay my bills, and then finally I quit that job. I came back to square one, no money in my account and again I struggled a lot."

He signed off by recalling his days of hardship and comparing them with his situation today. "I remember I used to walk 50 kms a day and it was like a newcomer who had just come to Mumbai and just started to pursue acting," Verma said. "So, it was extremely challenging and painful but by the grace of God, everything fell into place and I'm in a happy space now."

SOURCE : IANS