I was unhappy with work in 2019, wanted to quit: Wamiqa Gabbi

Having done several Punjabi and south films, Wamiqa Gabbi has created her niche in OTT space in three years. The actress, who recently played prominent roles in shows like talks to us about how she forayed into the new medium, which turned her career around.

She says, “In 2019 I was doing five to six films a year. My fee had increased, and I was set to earn more money.But I was very unhappy with what was being offered and I started thinking maybe I am not meant to be an actor. I decided to quit, start travelling to seek my true passion.” Soon after, she got an audition call for Vishal Bhardwaj’s project. “I was not very hopeful. But I loved that audition scene so much that I gave it my best and was shortlisted. I was enrolled for a three-day acting workshop, and during that that I fell in love with my craft all over again,” she says.

What drives Wamiqa is the role and not the platform it is on. “Manu (Supriya (Nilouferwere such beautiful characters that I didn’t care which platform they were on. When I was doing OTT, theatres were shut because of COVID. And here, I was getting such diverse and deep characters, which actors usually get after several years in the industry. I will do theatrical films also but what OTT has given me is surreal. I am telling stories about women who are unapologetic about who they are,” she says.

Ask her if working back-to-back is exhausting, and she says, “Honestly, I don’t want to be that person who does everything, because I have done that earlier in my regional films. And I am not proud of some choices I made back then. But I have had my me-time, spent time with my dogs and myself, now I want to work. Hopefully, I will lock something in Bollywood too soon.”