There was a youngster in a college in Delhi with a dream to become an actor, who took part in a street play and that play was directed by a then aspiring actor. 30 years later, that youngster became a prominent actress – known for her work on television and OTT platforms – and now shares screen space with that aspiring actor who is now multiple National Award-winning actor Manoj Bajpayee.

She is Sakshi Tanwar and in conversation with IANS, she opens up on how the film ‘Dial 100’ was a moment of nostalgia.

Sakshi told IANS: “It was so special and emotional for me to work with Manoj sir. I was in Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi where we were doing a street play and Manoj sir directed that play. This was like 30 years ago, I was a student. Soon after that he came to Mumbai and when ‘Satya’ was released, for me I was like – ‘I know him, he is my first director, I will meet him when I will become an actress’.

“It was weird that from the time I started working as an actress in Mumbai, I never met him properly and of course, never worked together. But it was on my wishlist to work with Manoj sir or at least meet him as an actress because I was just a student back then with a dream to become an actress. I wanted to meet him once and say ‘sir, you remember, I was that student you directed for a street play!'”

Now that Sakshi is one of the prominent names in the acting business, she only counts her blessings and feels fortunate to work with Manoj in an important film like ‘Dial 100’.

“Really feel fortunate on this, yes it took me 30 years but I am sharing screen space with an iconic actor like Manoj sir and meeting him in capacity of an actress,” added Sakshi, known for several TV series including ‘Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii’, ‘Bade Achhe Lagte Hain’ among others.

In the film she is playing the wife of Nikhil Sood, played by Manoj.

Neena Gupta also plays one of the principal characters in the film named Seema Pallav.

Sakshi said, “I have maximum number of scenes and all of them are very crucial, with Neenaji. In the film, there are a lot of tense moments between these two characters. Off-camera, it was just the opposite! Once the director says ‘cut’, we will just relax. I tend to talk a lot and Neena was quite welcoming to that idea, so whenever we got time, we had so much to talk! We would laugh, giggle and the more I watched Neena ji closely, the more I admired her. This was also the first film I shot post lockdown that actually gave me a sense of normalcy that otherwise I was feeling stuck in one confined space. I would say doing the film made me fulfill so many of my wishes! I am so happy!”

Directed by Rensil D’Silva, produced by Sony Pictures Films India, ‘Dial 100’ releases on ZEE5 on August 6.