For Shriya Pilgaonkar, The Future Is Lit

After proving her mettle in this year's critically-acclaimed Guilty Minds, the actress has a bunch of exciting roles she can't wait to sink her teeth into

- Deepali Singh

Growing up, Shriya Pilgoankar was interested in several things. Whether it was sports, music, or dance, she had a finger in every pie. At one point, the academically-inclined girl even considered a career in civil services. Her parents, actors Sachin and Supriya Pilgoankar, encouraged their daughter to go after whatever her heart desired.

At the time, however, acting did not seem to be anywhere on the horizon. What was there, was the performer's instinct. As a trained kathak dancer, abhinay was an important aspect of her art. Then a combination of events took place that helped steer her thoughts towards giving acting a try.

"I was interested in film-making, and I took up a film appreciation course at Film and Television Institute of India. At the same time, a friend asked me to audition for a ten-minute play he was making for the Short + Sweet Festival at NCPA," she recalls. For those ten minutes, Pilgaonkar rehearsed for a month, and it was those 30-odd days of training that made her feel more present than ever before.

Coincidentally, her father, the multifaceted Sachin, was making a Marathi film about a father-daughter relationship, and so impressed was he with what he witnessed on stage, that he offered the daughter's role to his daughter. "I knew people would say 'how convenient', but my father told me that a number of actors have made their debut with him, and he would not have asked me if he didn't genuinely think I was apt to play the part," she says. The other thing he told her that stayed with her was that no matter what people said, it was she who had to take the journey ahead.