I once thought of quitting acting due to lack of confidence in myself: Tanya Maniktala

Tanya Maniktala caught everyone’s attention with her acting and beauty in Mira Nair’s web series ‘The Suitable Boy’ and never looked back. From being selected as one of the contestants of BAFTA Breakthrough India to bagging roles in Santosh Sivan’s ‘Mumbaikar’, the upcoming OTT anthology ‘Feels Like Ishq’ and the web series ‘Chutjpaah’, Tanya Maniktala’s acting has a lot to offer.

However, he surprised everyone by saying that he had decided to quit acting at one point after his first show ‘Flames’. He told that it seems unrealistic to me myself that I didn’t really expect anything to happen. So, at this stage of my career, BAFTA Breakthrough India is happening and I am being selected as one of the 10 participants where I will get a chance to interact and be mentored by international experts! I feel lucky and I think I believe in miracles more.

Tanya made her acting debut with the web series ‘Flames’ when she was in college. After the release of the show, she thought that everyone would fill her up with offers and she would become a Bollywood star. He remembered that I am from Delhi, I do not know how the business of entertainment works. So, I thought doing a show would give me a series of works, movies etc. I was really naive. I kept giving auditions and started facing rejection.
The actress shared this was the time when I started doubting myself and thought of quitting acting. I think for any budding actor or artist, self-doubt can be a big issue which can break all confidence and conviction. You think your dream is broken. People can be hard on your face when they reject you at an audition. I am not complaining, but I am saying that I was young, naive, still in college and not ready for it.

For a while, he focused on studies, took a job as a copywriter in an advertising agency and gave up on his dream of majoring in acting. Tanya said that I will be grateful to my friend who inspired me to go for the audition of ‘The Suitable Boy’ and initially I did not expect to get the selection call after the audition. Rather I was ready to go to Melbourne for higher studies. Fifteen days before leaving for Melbourne, I was told that Meera (Nair) wanted to give her final audition and was coming to Delhi.

He signed. Eventually, I got that role and Meera Di helped me build the confidence that I had earlier lost because of all the rejection. She made me believe that if I believe in myself, if I have a dream and work towards it, there is no way I will not achieve it.