‘I was one of those geeky students’: Kriti Sanon reveals how she moved from being engineer to an actor

It’s been a pretty great year for Bollywood actress Kriti Sanon who won her first National Film Award in the Best Actress category for her film Mimi. While she has an impressive line of work that includes movies like Bareilly Ki Barfi, Adipurush, and more, the actress was never very serious about making acting her profession. In a recent interview, Kriti shared how she graduated from liking engineering to acting in movies.

Kriti Sanon on when the acting bug bit her

Kriti Sanon was in conversation with India Today at Conclave Mumbai 2023 where she spoke about her acting journey and moving from engineering to being an actor. Talking about it, she said that she never seriously thought of making acting her career choice. “I think it all has to start with dreams. I always feel that I have been a dreamer, in my head an achiever. Bachpann me log boltey hai mujhey actress banna hai, main bhi bolti thi (like others, even I used to say as a kid that I wanted to become an actress). I used to watch Madhuri Dixit and her songs and used to copy them. But acting was never something that I thought of seriously at all. I was always into academics. It was a very academic kind of an atmosphere at home and this is something that kind of just happened.”

Sharing about the time when the acting bug bit her, the Heropanti 2 actress shared, “So, someone told me you have the height and the face, why don’t you start modeling and I was like ‘ok, I’m not really sure if I want to be a model but ya, it could be an experience.’ So, I started modeling when I was in my B-tech second year and I did some TV ads and whatever little bit of acting was there, I really enjoyed it and I felt that I could do it. I loved being in front of the moving camera and that’s where the acting bug got me.”

Kriti Sanon says she was a geek

Kriti is an engineer who was also offered jobs by companies before she stepped into the film industry. The Shehzada actress said that she was a nerd who wouldn’t sleep before exams. “Honestly, I thought I wanted to be that (engineer). Sometimes, we don’t really explore things in life and we don’t really find our passion and then what we do is ‘ok, life me kuch toh karna hai’ (ok, I have to do something in life.) I didn’t really know exactly what an engineer would do. I even sat for placements and got two job offers. But I’ve always been someone who no matter what I do, I have to give it my 100% and I was one of those geeky students. I was one of those frontbenchers who had to sit on the last bench because she was tall. I wouldn’t sleep before the exams; I would stop eating. I was a nerd and kind of proud of it,” she divulged.

ALSO READ: ‘She told me just…’: Nupur Sanon recalls getting best acting advice from sister Kriti Sanon before debut