Amrita Puri has opened up about why she stepped away from the big screen after a few projects. Speaking about her decision to put education first, the ‘Aisha’ actor said she has no regrets about the choice, even though it meant staying away from films for two years.
Amrita Puri on moving to the UK for her master’s
Amrita made her Hindi film debut with ‘Aisha’ in 2010, playing a supporting role alongside Sonam Kapoor. After working on a handful of projects, she paused her acting career and moved to the UK to complete her master’s at the University of Edinburgh.Speaking on The Shaili Chopra Show, she recalled how people reacted to her absence. “I stepped away and I did my masters. I moved and went to a different country. I was unavailable for two years and people were like, ‘She is not acting anymore’. ‘Does she even live here anyore?’ It’s a choice and it is true, you can’t have everything in life. You never really know whether it was the best choice or the right choice. And often you do wonder. ‘What if?’ I am the queen of that. But you still got to trust yourself, like whatever is meant will come your way and you should go with your gut,” she said.Amrita admitted that the break may have cost her a few film roles, but she said she stands by her decision. She also shared that her parents did not want her to become an actor in the beginning, and that she was aware of how uncertain the profession could be even before she entered it.“Decisions that I have taken have made me who I am. My parents did not want me to become an actor when I started acting. I knew that it is an unrelieable profession and I may fail, but I decided to do it anyway. And then if I wanted to masters, I will go anyway. I don’t care if I am oldest person in the classroom. If people forget me in the film business, I will come back and take it from there. And it’s these things that build your confidence and give you a sense of identity,” she added.
Amrita Puri’s early films and breakthrough
After ‘Aisha’, Amrita appeared in Mahesh Bhatt’s ‘Blood Money’ in 2012. She gained wider recognition with the 2013 sports drama ‘Kai Po Che’, in which she starred alongside Rajkummar Rao and Sushant Singh Rajput.
Amrita Puri’s web series and recent work
She later featured in ‘Judgementall Hai Kya’, headlined by Kangana Ranaut and Rajkummar Rao. Amrita has also built a strong presence on streaming platforms with ‘Four More Shots Please!’, ‘Made in Heaven’, ‘Mentalhood’ and ‘Jeet Ki Zid’. Her latest project is the acclaimed series ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’, directed by Anubhav Sinha, which also stars Vijay Varma , Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Dia Mirza and Arvind Swamy.