Sanjay Gandhi: I am an actor with limitations

Mumbai (IANS) – Mumbai, Aug 31 (IANS) Sanjay Gandhi calls himself an actor with limitations despite noteworthy performances in films like Black Friday and No Smoking.

“If someone calls me for a role, I first ask them if I have to dance, fight or drive, because I can’t do those things. I accept it. But if you ask me say a monologue for an hour, I can do that easily. That’s my strength. I can say that I am actor with limitations. I don’t think there is anything wrong in accepting things I can’t do,” he said.

Sanjay came to Mumbai in 1990. He became an assistant director before moving on to theatre, because that was his passion. However, his struggle began at home.

“I did not have my family’s support in the beginning of my career, but my guru Robin Das encouraged me and supported me. Later even my parents had no issues,” he recalled.

“It was tough to become a good actor then, it still is. You need a good mentor to tell you the difference between a hero and an actor. Once you know the difference and understand the nuances of acting, the struggle becomes easy because you first need to understand what acting is. The struggle in this industry is never ending, so you need to have patience and keep the passion alive, if you want to people to know you,” he said.

Sanjay is popularly known for his role of Mahendra Pratap Singhania in the TV show “Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai”. He says he has no problems in doing TV or films because he wants to do meaningful roles, be it on any platform.

“Anyone who enters the industry wants to be seen in films, but they want meaningful roles, be it on any medium. I did ‘Hate Story 3’ and ‘Black Friday’ because the characters were interesting and affected the storyline in a way. So there is no such line between TV and films. All a film actor wants is to do significant roles in TV. The same goes for TV actors — they want to do films but they just don’t want to just be a part of it. They want their characters to be important,” said Sanjay, who recently made his directorial debut with the short film “Yaad”.