From Muzaffarnagar to the Silver Screen - Know My Story

I grew up in Muzaffarnagar, where my family was into the 'Ram Leela' plays. I used to play a comrade in the ‘Sena’ of Lord Hanuman. My dad still heads the play in Gandhi Colony. My childhood was pretty ordinary, with school and street cricket. You know, typical small-town stuff. After finishing twelfth grade, we moved to Delhi for my education.

For graduation, most kids in our area studied engineering. But my background was in Commerce. And Engineering wasn't my thing. I wanted to do Mass Communication and become a journalist. But I couldn't get into a good college for that. I was good at Hindi, so I took Hindi Honours at Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, Delhi University. Luckily, the course included Mass Communication, so it worked out.

In college, I discovered my talent for mimicry. My cousin Kamal Sharma noticed and suggested I try for the National School of Drama (NSD). I didn't know much about it, so I saw a play at Mandi House. It was Othello, performed by Mahendra Mewati and Shrivardhan Trivedi. The play blew me away. I still get goosebumps while talking about Mahendra Sir. No doubt, he is popularly known as the last star of Mandi House. I have watched so many films, but no one beats his performance. 

I couldn't join NSD right away. However, I learned about the Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts and joined it after some play experience and audition. At first, my parents weren't sure about my acting dreams, but my elder brother, Anuj Sharma, supported me. Eventually, I started earning through theatre, even doing three plays a day. After a few months, my friends and I decided to move to Mumbai to pursue our careers.

Surprisingly, my parents were cool with it and encouraged me to go for it.

I landed in Bombay in 2010 and got my first break in 2014. In between, I worked on ads and Crime Patrol. I won't say it was a big struggle, but more of a process. I feel that ‘struggle’ is often overused in the industry. Whatever field you are working on will take some time to excel. You should have patience and find a way to survive the challenging times. I love teaching, and I feel that teaching comes naturally to me. So, managing my finances was never an issue. I covered it easily through either taking workshops or being a mentor on reality shows like India’s Best Dramebaaz. Even today, I love to educate aspiring artists through workshops.

My time came! And can you believe my first scene in the film industry was with the legend Amitabh Bachchan Sir in Bhoothnath Returns? It was surreal! The icing on the cake was my shoot, which was extended from five days to nineteen days as Nitesh Tiwari, our director, liked my acting.

The journey continues. And it will remain that way till I keep the hunger for the art alive. I am greatly inspired by legendary actors like Kamal Haasan, Fahadh Faasil, Shah Rukh Khan, and  Manoj Bajpayee. And if you haven't watched 'Life is Beautiful,' you should—it's an incredible Italian comedy-drama!

Delhi Stories is an emerging platform to feature inspirational, motivational, relatable and beautiful stories. Do you also have an interesting story like Manuj Sharma?