A new kid on the block, Pooja Pandey made her big screen debut with hard-hitting Siya that his helmed by producer turned Director Manish Mundra. The film that released on September 16 also stars Vineet Kumar Singh in the pivotal role.
When asked on how did she bag this unconventional film as her feature debut, she shares, “My director Manish Mundra saw one of my interviews on my social media, he was shocked to see my confidence and asked me how come I am so brave and courageous. I am from a small city Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh and have been seeing things since my childhood such as people commenting in general. I tried putting all those real life experiences in my character and the film.”
“When this script was offered to me, I was shooting for a series Baaraat around Jabalpur and I was supposed to shoot for it’s second schedule but it never took off. I used to think that why the worst happens to me only? I know for a fact that one needs a lot of patience in the film industry. I even Faced Casting Couch. I have blocked around 150 contacts in my phone because of that. After 2-3 weeks, I got a call from the casting agent and he told that this film can be your turning point in life. His statement pushed me majorly to do Siya. I was crying while hearing the narration and found relatability in the character. I felt, nothing could be better than debuting with a film like Siya,” she adds.
Siya is a soul-stirring story of a girl, who gets kidnapped and brutally raped. When asked her about post-shoot process of coming out her character, she reveals, “It was not an easy role for a normal human or a female to play but despite being from a small town where I have seen and heard such incidents, it took me sometime to come out. I even even went with the crew for the racee to Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh where we shot the film.”
Pooja is the younger sister of actress Shalini Pandey, who recently made her Hindi film debut alongside Ranveer Singh in Jayeshbhai Jordaar. “Since childhood, we both wanted to be actresses. It may sound cheesy, but we used to role play in front of the mirror and imitate Karisma and Kareena and even took interviews of each other,” she concludes.
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