Gayatri Bhardwaj is an Indian model, actress, and beauty pageant titleholder who predominantly works in Hindi films. She represented the state of New Delhi at the Femina Miss India 2018 pageant, where she was crowned Femina Miss India Miss United Continents 2018, and represented India at the Miss United Continents pageant
Women Fitness President, Ms. Namita Nayyar catches up with Gayatri Bhardwaj as she talks about her journey, pageant stories, and much more exclusively in our March Digital Edit
Namita Nayyar:
Gayatri you started your journey with Pegents, tell us how you decided to be part of Femiss Miss India.
Gayatri Bhardwaj
Miss India was something I always grew up watching, I strongly remember every year there was a picture in the Delhi Times, of the three winners with the crown and bouquet, I always wanted to go in for it but my parents wanted me to complete my studies first and then venture into it so I completed my dentistry and then I went ahead with Miss India, cleared all the rounds and went ahead to win Miss United Continents and represent my county which was a mesmerizing moment for me since I was finally living my dream which I never realized would become a reality.
Namita Nayyar:
You have been part of the Hindi and Telugu industries, tell us how you decided to be an actor and prepared yourself for a role.
Gayatri Bhardwaj
After my pageant journey was over, I was clueless about what I wanted to do in life. I also had my dentistry degree. Could have worked and pursued my career there, but at the same time, I feel like my passion always lay in the performing arts. I was always a very expressive child, who loved to be on the stage. It was just always my passion to be on stage. So I feel like that remained with me throughout. And I wanted to ultimately do something that I’m good at, that I’m passionate about.
So I started taking acting workshops and went to give hundreds of auditions in the first two years of my stay in Bombay. And I feel like I kept getting better at what I did. I mean, from my first audition to the one I cracked, there’s a huge difference. And I feel like life taught me, experiences have taught me how to act. So much has changed in me as a person. All of that has shaped me into, the actors that I am, because I feel like acting is also a culmination of what you are as a person in real life, and all of those experiences helped me. There were a lot of highs and an equal amount of equal number of lows in my life.
But, the first-ever role that I cracked was Dhindora, which was opposite Bhuvan Bam, it was a series that was released on YouTube. The response that I received from the audience honestly changed my life, because after that, it was like a no-brainer that I wanted to continue. And after that, of course, I did one Hindi film. Then I did my, web series called Ishq Express, which was on Amazon Mini TV. I did a film called Tiger Nageshwara Rao, a Telugu film released pan-India. It was challenging to take on that character because again, a Telugu girl, I’m a Delhi girl through and through.
I was born and raised in a city and I played a village girl in this story. So I feel like the time at which this role came to me was a time when I was a lot more vulnerable as an actor, I was a lot more attuned to being, to shed my outer layers, and embracing a different character altogether. I learned Telugu for two to three months. I remember I had taken workshops, I used to be on my Zoom calls with this Telugu teacher, writing down the pronunciation, and memorizing my lines. So that was that was a big, challenge, that is basically what went into the prep for the film.