Before making her debut with Aamir Khan in India's highest-grossing film Dangal in 2016, Sanya Malhotra was rejected from a dance reality show.
From Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar to Kriti Sanon and Taapsee Pannu, there have been several actors and actresses in the Hindi film industry who have been born in Delhi. Another addition to this list is of Sanya Malhotra, who was born in 1992 in Delhi in a Punjabi Hindu family and moved to Mumbai after her graduation.
After graduating from Gagri college, Sanya cleared the Delhi auditions of a dance reality show Dance India Dance and reached Mumbai. She couldn't go beyond the top 100 in the show, but chose to stay back in the Maharashtrian capital to try his luck at acting. Sanya had shared this story when she came to Dance Deewane 3 in 2021 to promote her film Pagglait. She had then said, "Life has come a full circle for me today. Six years back, I had come to this studio for a dance reality show audition and I did not clear it. And I remember, it was 1 am in the night when I got free and I called my friend and said that I have not been able to get through and to come and pick me up. And you were there, Dharmesh sir. I was not able to clear it because of you. But now, I am here to promote my film." The choreographer Dharmesh responded to her, "I think when you must have left from here that day, you would have left with a lot of courage and determination that 'mujhe ab karke dikhana hai'."
The actress also recently revealed that she was even asked to get a jaw reconstruction surgery in an audition. Speaking to the internet sensation Uorfi Javed on her podcast Uncancellable, Sanya said, "When I came to Mumbai, I used to go for auditions without hair and makeup. I was sure I’d be selected for my acting alone." She even added how her mother took her to meet three pandits to dissuade her from acting. "My mother took me to at least three pandit jis, all of whom said that I shouldn’t pursue acting and that this isn’t the correct line for me. They told my mother that I will study economics and get into a bank. I said, 'That’s not possible'", she added.
Finally, after several months of auditions, Sanya bagged her debut film Dangal, in which she played the Indian wrestler Babita Kumari. The 2016 sports drama, headlined by Aamir Khan and also starring Fatima Sana Shaikh, went on to become India's biggest blockbuster with worldwide earnings of Rs 2024 crore.
After Dangal, Sanya has continued to impress the audiences with her brilliant performances in films like Badhaai Ho, Ludo, Kathal, Jawan, and Sam Bahadur among others. She will be seen next in the drama Mrs. and action thriller Baby John this year.
READ | This film was based on iconic love story, actors and director died midway, was released incomplete 23 years later
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