They say when you’re raised by a strong father it prepares you for life in a special and ultimately affirming way. This Father’s Day, Dangal TV actors get nostalgic about the intrinsic role their fathers have played in their life. Going down memory lane they share how they learned to wake up and face life and to never fear it.

Rahul Sharma from Pyar Ki Lukka Chuppi:

My father has been my inspiration throughout my life. It is mainly because of the hard work and the focus he has had all his life. He is never worried about what will happen tomorrow. He would always look at how he could fix things if they went wrong and how to create new opportunities.

I have learnt this from him. All these qualities helped me a lot when I moved to Mumbai. We have to be mentally very strong, patient and determined and focused to achieve everything that you have desired and he has taught me this. His advice has helped me grow and come out of situations I was stuck in. I think these are the best gifts he has given to me.

Aparna Dixit from Pyar Ki Lukka Chuppi:

My Dad has got the best sense of humour. He makes my mom me and my brother laughs uncontrollably, he has that gift.

Also, I feel fathers are the silent backbones of families. He has been a supportive father rather a proud one who believed in his daughter and asked her to fly. He is very emotional. I do get calls from him every now and then telling how proud he is of what I do!

He gets tears in his eyes whenever he watches any emotional father-daughter scenes in movies and then he calls me up and talks.

Ankit Arora from Alif Laila:

I feel a father is every child’s first superhero. My father is nothing less than Superman for me. My father had a huge business loss when I was very young and we had to sell everything and shift to an Ashram. That’s when I decided to leave home at the age of 16 to come to Mumbai and make a career in Music.

While I am the only child of my parents my father and I did not talk much as I was very shy but I know for a fact that he loves me unconditionally. I remember when I was in school and the winters had started, other children were wearing coats. Since we were financially not very strong I had mentally prepared myself that I would make do with a sweater although I felt I would look good in a coat.

He knew about this and one morning I woke up to a surprise with a coat besides my bed which he quietly bought. He kept giving me small surprises with all the things I loved. He went out of his way to provide me with everything in his capacity and more.

My dad has been very hard working and his talks are a source of inspiration for me. I am happy his dedication is something which I have picked up and that has helped me survive in this industry. I aim to provide him with all what he wishes. He always motivates and encourages me till today and does not let the fire in my die. I am lucky to have a father like him and pray I continue to be his son in lifetimes to come.

Vishal Karwal from Dwarkadheesh – Bhagwaan Shree Krishna:

I spent the first 10 years of my life at home after which I moved to the boarding school. But the lessons that my father taught me then has always stayed with me through my life.

One of the things he always told me was that life is like a ladder and the steps on that are like people. These people let you keep your leg on their shoulder and move ahead. So we have to make sure we never hurt them and break that step because if there is a point where we have to climb down the ladder, we will fall flat on our face if we miss even a single step.

So we have to make sure we never forget the people who have been with us from the start and this has stayed with me. I am still friends with the people from school and they are my closest bunch.

Madhura Naik from Alif Laila:

My father has always been one of the very few men I’ve always looked up to. He’s the one who’d introduced me to this world not only in a true sense of my biological birth but also introduced me to different lands, countries, cultures, traditions, food and I think that’s where I get my wanderlust from.

As a kid, I had travelled half the world with my father. He had brought me from Indore to Mumbai when I was just about 10 days old! And post then we accompanied him to most of the destinations he travelled to, from Mauritius to the Philippines to Paris to Brussels to Egypt and many more.

My brightest memory which I still cherish till date is the day he took us to Paris Disney Land. I will never forget all those rides we got onto together and excitement that filled my heart as a kid. More than the travels, he’s the reason behind us ‘having a spine’ the strong set of rights and wrongs and the values that he inculcated within us. He will always be the man of truth and honour and one of the strongest figures with an Aura of god for me.