While Maharashtrian actress Resham Shrivardhan (@resham._.resham) could have followed a “safer” career path, she chose not to, and gave acting her best shot. Now, she has recently starred in the Amazon original show Breathe: Into the Shadows.
Growing up Resham was a rather shy child, yet very talkative. She describes herself as not being noticed by others, except when she would talk too much at school. In 8th grade, she took part in numerous elocution competitions, and bagged several prizes. She found that this is a way she can express herself and convey what she felt.
Resham studied Psychology at Ramnarain Ruia College in Mumbai. She recalls how when she was auditioning for the Drama club, unlike the other students, she wanted to write her own script to perform.
After seeing the long hours that Resham would invest in acting, her father asked her to reconsider pursuing acting as a career and leave it. So, she left acting for two years, and started learning German, hoping to become a translator. She describes her classroom like the TV show Mind your Language, where people from all walks of life would gather to learn German.
Resham says, “One day I just went up to my father, and said ‘it’s the second last year of my college. Being on stage truly makes me happy and I just want to give it a shot’ and he said he would let me have 3 months.” She went on to participate in various college festivals including Mumbai University’s Youth Festival and the Indian National Theatre Competition.
The Festivals gave her a huge platform to showcase her talent. As she performed extremely well at these events, she was called for various auditions. Her father allowed her more liberties to go for auditions, as he saw her excelling and getting auditions for Television.
After working in the industry for a while, Resham remembers asking her mother if it was a safer option to continue learning German. To which her mother responded, “You were so excited about getting into Television. Why don’t you just hang in there for a bit?” Resham heeded her mother’s advice, and has been working in the industry ever since.
In her recent Amazon Original Show Breathe: Into the Shadows, Resham stars alongside Abhishek Bachchan and plays the role of Gayatri Mishra. She received a lot of positive feedback for her work. In 2016, she was also on the Marathi TV serial Pasant Ahe Mulgi.
Resham has tried working on a few projects amidst the lockdown, but in the meantime, plans to figure out what kind of work she would love to do. She says, “Because I lived away from my parents in Mumbai, the lockdown has given me more time with family. I’ve been home for over 6 months now and Mother loves doting on me.”Resham’s Advice to young people is to scroll less, read more, watch more, and to love fearlessly. She adds, “I know it’s rather filmy of me to say that, but it makes sense. But we so often forget to cherish what we love.”
