Sanya Malhotra Calls Herself Monica From FRIENDS & The Reason Is Interesting!

Sanya Malhotra made her Bollywood debut with Nitesh Tiwari’s Dangal (2016) in a role that was nowhere close to that of a conventional Bollywood heroine. From there on the actress went on to do films like Pataakha and Photograph.

Now Sanya opens up on what makes her choose such unconventional roles as opposed to several of her contemporaries. Popularly known as the Dangal girl, Sanya said that it is the kind of cinema that she has grown up on that attributes to her choice of films and characters.

Speaking to ETimes, Sanya said, “My choices stem from the fact that when I decided to become an actor, I had also decided to try as many things as possible, live as many lives and experience different worlds, conflicts and emotions and not get stuck with doing one thing. Today, I feel the need to lead different lives with different characters. When I am choosing a role, I follow my instinct. If my mind gravitates to a role, I take it up, regardless of the length. I don’t calculate much, and I have enjoyed everything I have done so far; none of the characters I have played is anything like the real me.”

However, after playing so many characters, Sanya says it is easy to lose oneself in the industry and hence it becomes necessary to have people in your life who give you a much-needed reality check at regular intervals.

Revealing who these people are in her life, Sanya was quoted saying, “My closest friends are people who are not from the industry and those who have known me as their roomie. I have not changed for them. When we meet, we connect on the same plane. With them, I’m still like Monica from sitcom FRIENDS. And the work I do has not changed my friends’ attitude towards me. They don’t care for the ‘star’ status. That’s a blessing. In this industry, it’s very easy to lose yourself and difficult to hold on to who you really are.”

Meanwhile, on the professional front, Sanya has a rather interesting line up of films with Anurag Basu’s Ludo and Anu Menon’s Shakuntala Devi biopic alongside Vidya Balan.