Anupriya Goenka shares experience of shady auditions, rejections

Bollywood is all about the glitz and glamour, right? Wrong! If you think making it in the industry is all about talent and fairy-tale moments, Anupriya Goenka’s journey will make you rethink everything. The actress, who has been part of blockbuster hits like Padmaavat, Tiger Zinda Hai, and War, recently sat down with Siddharth Kannan to talk about the darker side of Bollywood, or should I say the ‘firsts’ that she experienced in the beginning of her career – from late-night auditions that felt more like shady business deals to losing out on Sultan’s lead role to Anushka Sharma, simply because she did not fit the ‘YRF heroine’ stereotype, because she is too dusky for it. Yeah right!

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Anupriya Goenka’s shady late-night audition experiences

While discussing her audition days, Anupriya dropped a truth bomb about the kind of roles she was expected to accept. She spoke about how she never categorised films as A or B-grade and approached every audition with the same enthusiasm. But the reality of these so-called ‘auditions’ was far from professional. “Many of these B-grade film auditions happened late at night, at directors’ or producers’ houses,” she revealed. While she got selected for several roles, she often rejected them due to the questionable scripts and even more questionable ‘meetings’ with producers.

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“There were times when I was invited for an audition, but all they wanted was for me to ‘talk’ to the producers. I entertained some of these conversations initially, thinking it was part of the process, but eventually I stopped going for those auditions and stopped entertaining them as I immediately refused,” she said. Luckily, she managed to escape the grim fate that many hopefuls in the industry fall into.

Losing Sultan to Anushka Sharma because she is ‘dusky’

As if navigating these disturbing auditions was not enough, Anupriya also faced heartbreak on a larger scale. She was in the race to play the lead role in Salman Khan’s blockbuster Sultan, but despite giving 10+ auditions, she lost the part to Anushka Sharma. And the reason? She was not a ‘typical Yash Raj heroine,’ because she is too dusky for it.

“I auditioned for the lead role in Sultan. They were looking for fresh faces, and I went through multiple rounds – 11 or 12 tests in total. It started with an initial audition, then a second, a music video test, a dance test with Vaibhavi Merchant, and finally, script readings with Ali Abbas Zafar,” she explained. She had a one-month audition process that was incredible according to her, only to realise later that she was never truly in the running because YRF had a specific type in mind. It was only when she finally met director Ali Abbas Zafar and heard him refer to ‘Mr Khan’ that she realised the film was Sultan. But despite acing every test, the role ultimately went to Anushka Sharma, a star with an established YRF connection and of course cause she is fair.

From rejection to reinvention

While missing out on Sultan was undoubtedly a major disappointment, Anupriya has since carved a space for herself in Bollywood and the OTT world. Meanwhile, Sultan became a box-office sensation, with Anushka Sharma’s portrayal of a wrestler winning audience appreciation. But Anupriya is not dwelling on what could have been. Instead, she has continued proving her acting mettle with powerful performances across platforms.

Watch the full interview here:

Well, to sum it up, her revelations serve as yet another reminder that Bollywood’s shiny exterior hides a far more complicated, and often unsettling, reality. Whether it is late-night auditions with questionable motives or losing major roles due to industry biases, making it in Bollywood is no fairy tale, but thanks to all these OTT shows, Anupriya Goenka is now determined to write her own story.