‘Extremely difficult, nothing easy about it’: Saiyami Kher looks back on 10 years in Bollywood, says she misses watching stories with heart

In an interview with Hindustan Times, Saiyami Kher looks back on a decade in the film industry and the kind of films she misses in Bollywood.

It has been 10 years since Saiyami Kher debuted in Bollywood with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Mirzya. The film might not have worked as intended, but from then till her recent release, Priyadarshan’s Haiwaan, the actor says she has faced everything from nasty comments to being made to feel insecure. However, in an interview with Hindustan Times, she says that everything that followed it has always been worth it. “I’ve always wished to be an actor for a long time,” she says.

Saiyami Kher says she faced nasty comments in the beginning of her career.

From insecurity to feeling validated

When I ask Saiyami to describe the feeling of being an actor in Bollywood for 10 years, she says, “You know, when you climb a really high mountain, and the journey to the top is tough? But looking back from the top, the view is spectacular. It was tough, but it all feels worth it; that’s what it feels like.” She adds, “These ten years have been extremely difficult, and there has been nothing easy about it. When I started out, obviously, there were a lot of nasty comments passed. People are still brutal about beauty standards with the newcomers.”

Saiyami Kher in a still from Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Mirzya.

The actor says that every time she has battled the insecurities that come with being an actor, a filmmaker has validated her. “I feel extremely grateful that every time I doubted myself, questioned myself and my place in the industry, there has been a filmmaker to back me out of nowhere,” says Saiyami, adding, “From Rakesh sir to Anurag Kashyap to Neeraj Panday to R Balki to Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, these were all filmmakers on my bucket list. And I got the chance to work with them.”

Wanting realness on screen in Bollywood

Saiyami hopes that the film industry will learn to embrace realness, not just in beauty standards but also in its stories. “I feel that we need to celebrate realness much more. When I watch Tabu, she blows my mind away because of how real she is,” says the actor, adding, “When it comes to cinema too, we had a phase from 2015 to the pandemic where we told such good stories. For me, that was real cinema.”

“I’m hoping that kind of cinema is celebrated again. I wish such real stories came back because that’s what I like watching. I just hope that we bring heart back to cinema, which I feel has been missing for a few years now. We are making these big films, but I don’t think they move anybody. I was a huge fan of Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s work. I liked the web series Gullak. I have been missing cinema like that as an audience,” Saiyami rounds off, with hope of a better next decade.