‘Didn’t see myself in a job, mother didn’t support my decision to act’: Sayani Gupta

Sayani Gupta said her mother was not okay with the fact that she quit her well-paying job to pursue a career in acting. She did not speak with her for a month.

Sayani Gupta knew that she wanted to become an actor and wanted to learn more about it. That meant quitting her high-paying corporate job at a young age, a decision that her mother was not supportive of. The actor was in conversation on Cyrus Says, where she recalled how her mother did not speak to her for a month after she got into FTII to pursue acting.

Sayani Gupta talked about the time when her mother was against the idea of her becoming an actor. (Photo: Instagram)

What Sayani said

During the chat, Sayani talked about the early days when she wanted to get into FTII (Film and Television Institute of India, Pune) to pursue acting. She began, “My mom said, ‘I am going to slit my wrist if you go and she couldn’t believe it’. I was bored out of my skull those one and a half years. I made a lot of money because I was a workaholic, but this is not what I saw for myself… all my life, growing up, she didn't let me go for theatre rehearsals and locked me in my room, saying actors are prostitutes. That was the idea of actors that she had."

She went on to add how she tried her best not to tell her mother that she had taken up the acting course in FTII, but within two minutes of her reaching the campus, she knew. An interesting shift occurred when Sayani's mother was offered roles in student diploma films on campus itself. She accepted three out of the five offers and told Sayani, “Maybe if you have to do this for the next 2 years, it’s not so bad, also.”

Sayani made her Hindi film debut in 2012 with Second Marriage.com. She rose to prominence with her supporting role in Margarita with a Straw (2015). Over the years, she has starred in films like Fan, Jolly LLB 2, and Article 15. She was last seen in Four More Shots Please, Season 4, which premiered on Prime Video December 19, 2025.