Born and brought up in Punjab, actor Shagun Pandey is a true Punjabi at heart who has struggled his way into the TV sets of Mumbai with sheer determination and dedication. Son of an LIC agent, Shagun comes from a humble middle-class Punjabi family. As a student of Mount Carmel, Chandigarh, Shagun was a mischievous kid and is full of fun memories from his school days to recount.
While in school, Shagun realized his true interest lay in acting as he started actively participating in dramatic events and even started a school dramatic club. Under the guidance of Yogesh Arora, whom Shagun considers his acting guru, he got the opportunity to participate in various inter-school plays and Punjab and Delhi state-level theatre shows and some local Nukkad Natak shows.
For his higher secondary education, Shagun took up commerce, hoping he would be able to dedicate more time to acting while managing his studies on the side. Surrounded by friends and classmates from affluent families, Shagun realized they have a very different outlook and aim in life and could afford the luxuries that he could not think of at the time. He recounts his years consisting of alternate day trips to Delhi by bus to audition for various shows. He admits to having fallen in the trap in many audition frauds where he was asked to pay money with the promise of getting auditions and performances. Being a tall guy, he would have to sit next to the driver on his way back to Chandigarh when it used to get late, but he was not allowed to sleep. After this hectic audition routine, he would have to go back to school the next day. At some point, he did feel like nothing much came of it.
Nevertheless, with the help of Yogesh Arora, Shagun did manage to acquire acting experience through more than a hundred theatre shows, and around 300-400 Nukkad Natak shows locally. He then started trying for auditions in Mumbai. He received full support from his father, who took money out of his savings to pay for Shagun’s flights to Mumbai for auditions. Eventually, he got a call from Rashmi Sharma Telefilms (makers of Swaragini and Saath Nibhana Saathiya) for a role in Santoshi Maa. Shagun’s journey and life in Mumbai began after that.
On getting called from MTV Splitsvilla, Shagun confidently took it up, knowing his Punjabi upbringing would fight it out. Having spent over 2-2.5 lakh on his clothes, he learned to survive. Shagun did reach the finale, and it helped him get some fame and be noticed on the screen, which also helped his cause.
As he started getting more auditions, roles started opening up. His last role as a transgender person had been a great learning experience. He realizes the effort it takes for women to get dressed and into character and admits to never rushing a woman to get ready faster again.
Although the Covid-19 situation has slowed things down for actors in the industry, Shagun looks forward to and hopes to bag a role as a hero after having played more grey characters like Atharv Bapat (in Tujhse hai Raabta) and Mihir Doshi (in Shubharambh). On his active presence on Instagram, he feels like it is a medium for him to get noticed, which is a part of the job, but he prefers not to have his personal life on display. He feels like people should relate to the characters he plays on TV more than his real life.
In spite of his struggles, Shagun has always been a very positive person and takes on whatever comes his way with a zeal that would inspire a lot of aspiring influencers, not just in his field but others as well.
