‘Saw On Wikipedia Too': Akansha Ranjan Reacts To ‘American Actress' Tag
Actress Akansha Ranjan, who is also Alia Bhatt's BFF, recently garnered much appreciation for her performance in the comedy-drama, Gram Chikitsalay. Previously, the actress has also appeared in multiple Hindi projects, including Guilty, Monica, O My Darling, Jigra and Decoded, among others. Despite this, she has been known as an American actress. The actress now cleared the air about the same in a recent interview.
In a candid conversation on a podcast for Digital Commentary, Akansha Ranjan was asked about her 'American actress' status. To this, the actress immediately responded in affirmation, mentioning, 'Haan haan maine bhi dekha hai Wikipedia pe American actress. Meri mom ki puri family America se hai (Yes, ye,s I have also seen American actress tag on Wikipedia. My mother's entire family is from America), so I am an American citizen."
In the same conversation, she then went on to explain how she ended up being part of the Hindi film industry. FYI: Akansha made her film debut in 2020 with the Kiara Advani-starrer movie Guilty, for which she even received a Filmfare OTT Awards nomination. Talking about the same, the actress discussed her actor father, Shashi Ranjan's roots and how he wished to see Akansha as an actress.
'Toh mere papa ko actor banana tha. Woh Haryana se hai. Young age se agar hum kuch bhi (So my father wanted to make me an actor. He is from Haryana. From a young age, if I said anything) like dhai lana, 'Dhai?? Dahi hota hai (It is yoghurt)," she shared.
She continued, 'Mtlb humko tok rahe hai. Toh humari diction, humari pronunciation bahut bahut achchi rahe chuki hai kyunki papa mtlb ghar se bahar bhej nhi rahe hai. Like it was very like 'Hindi actress kaise banogi? Hindi nhi aati.' (I mean, I was being interrupted. So my diction, my pronunciation, has remained very good because my father was not sending me out of the house. Like it was very like 'How will you become a Hindi actress? You don't know Hindi)."
The actress further talked about being roped into the film. She said, 'I signed the show very late. Just 3-4 weeks before the shoot. Agar thora bhi off huya, thora bhi prep jyada nhi huya ho aur off lage toh galiya toh hum sab khayenge. (If even a little bit of preparation is not done and it seems off, then we all will be abused)."
She added, 'Phir teen hafte, har roj agar main kahungi ki 'Rahul mujhe ye samaj nhi aa raha.' Woh bolega, 'Kya?' 'Rahul humein samaj nhi aaya. Please batayiye.' Mtlb woh bhi phir humara shuru ho gaya. Teen hafte aise prep karke. (Then for three weeks, every day, if I say that 'Rahul, I am not able to understand this.' He will say, 'What?' 'Rahul, I did not understand. Please tell me.' Meaning that it also started again for us. After preparing like this for three weeks)."
Directed by Rahul Pandey, the television series also stars Amol Parashar, Anandeshwar Dwivedi and Vinay Pathak in key roles. Created by Deepak Kumar Mishra and Arunabh Kumar and produced by TVF, Gram Chikitsalay premiered on May 9 on Prime Video.
Coming to her personal life, Akansha was born to Shashi Ranjan, an actor and director from FTII and Anu Ranjan, the Founder of The Indian Television Academy. Shashi has also appeared in several films.
Looking ahead, Akansha will next appear in the Telugu and Tamil bilingual science fiction action thriller film, MaayaOne, a sequel to the 2017 movie Maayavan.
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