From being bullied in college to getting restaurant collaborations after Celebrity MasterChef; Tejasswi Prakash recalls her journey into showbiz

Tejasswi Prakash has been currently ruling hearts with her culinary prowess in Celebrity MasterChef. When it comes to her acting skills, the actress need no introduction as she has delivered hits show. In the recent chat with Humans Of Bombay, the actress got candid about her academic years, Celebrity MasterChef and more.

We Engineering students go through so much pain while studying. So much embarrassment already. Our results are given out in front of everybody in the canteen. So how can you embarrass us anymore? I used to get a lot of KTs and I remember once I dropped a year, and luckily, that year was when I got Swaragini. That was the most popular and successful show. That year went by happily.

The next year, I had to sit with my juniors, and I felt really alone. So you need to make groups for the thesis, and they already had their groups made with their set of friends and I was alone in the batch. It was very hurtful to feel left out. From my first year itself, because I started working, the girls started hating me because I was popular. People would get envious about that.

When you are in an Engineering college, it is really tough. Not just the study part. I remember I had gone for my viva wearing a kurti. It was sleeveless and I was told that 'this isn't a fashion parade, its a viva.' We had a college fest, which was only for the first-year kids, and the games were so random. We had to stand on the stage, and the seniors would throw soap water at you, and you have to save yourself. Indirectly, it was raging.

I used to never react. There was this one time when I was in the cultural fest team, and the room was quite dirty so I took the broom and started cleaning. Someone took a picture of me and put it on Facebook with the caption, 'Tejasswi is doing what she is best at.' And I didn't react to that as well, I would sit and cry over the fact. Then, I reached the point where I realised that not everyone would like me. Now, I have reached the stage where you can't dare talk to me like that.

MasterChef holds the most credibility in my reality shows graph. It took me an initial 2-3 weeks to understand what our judges liked. I might like something spicy, and the judges might not. But all I that I wanted to take out of the show was my acting skills. I have been an actor who is keen on having other businesses as well. Being a part of MasterChefs gives me a huge space in my resume to get into the FnB business.

For someone an amateur like me with never having gone to a culinary school. Having her dish in a Michelin star restaurant in New York is huge. I feel I am very confident as a cook or the chef in me. I am thinking of different ventures to get into, and this could be one of them. I do have people reaching out to me to collaborate with renowned restaurants to have my personal men and sharing the revenue or profit.

It is exciting and risky at the same time, it is not an easy business to get into. Just because I cook well, I am very confident in my flavours, and people love my vision of food doesn't mean I can run a restaurant. I am looking to begin with a partnership and then move further to have my own.