Actress Maanvi Gagroo is back on Prime Video with the second season of Half Love Half Arranged. She plays Riya, the hyper-organised millennial who navigates the challenging world of relationships where everything can’t be mapped out. The star, who shot to fame with Prime’s successful gal pal venture Four More Shots Please! talks to The Telegraph Online about sharing the screen with costar Karan Wahi, her takeaways from her career curve, and projects in the pipeline.

How has your character, Riya, in Half Love Half Arranged evolved over the course of the show?

Maanvi Gagroo: Riya started off as an insanely organised person who is too stringent about her things in life. She wanted to marry someone by age 30 and it was her sole purpose of meeting people. Then she met Jogi (Karan Wahi) who makes her feel a certain way. That’s when she realises that this great feeling is one she’s been chasing. Yet, the guy doesn’t fit into her checklists – he’s been married before, has a kid, and their lives are very different. By the end of the season, we see her rigid outlook shifting a little bit. She has realised that life is going to throw things at you and you have to deal with them. You can't let that hassle you beyond a point.

What can we expect from season 2?

Maanvi Gagroo: With Jogi’s entry in season 1, we saw Riya learning to ease up a little bit. In season 2 we see more of that. While she has become more mature and open as a person and accepts that everything will not happen according to her plans, when it comes to her love life she is still confused. We continue to explore this in the new season.

How much do you relate to Riya?

Maanvi Gagroo: In terms of personality, we are very different. Riya is organised and I am the opposite. I am more of a go-with-the-flow person and I hate making plans. I don’t like regimented things. My personal life also differs from Riya’s. She is easily swayed and gets confused. I, on the other hand, am pretty decisive. I take time to make a decision and after that, there’s no looking back. The one thing I have in common with her is our relationship with our families. No matter what goes wrong, we know we can return to our family. We know that our family will accept us as we are. We are aware of our support, that we have a net – our family – to fall back on.

How did you prepare for a role that navigates such relatable yet complex emotions?

Maanvi Gagroo: It was relatively easy for me since I have an elder sister who is exactly like my character, Riya. I had a mould before me, so I based Riya on her. Also, I feel this show is well written and a lot of material is already given in the script. As an actor, you don’t have to do much – just flesh out the character onscreen.

How was it sharing screen space with Karan Wahi?

Maanvi Gagroo: Karan is a fun guy. We first met during the workshop for season 1 and immediately hit it off. A lot of the show was shot in Delhi so he would take us around to eat local food since we both are from there. We had a good time.

Karan comes with this tremendous television experience and that’s great to have in any co-actor. He is technically very sound. He gave suggestions to help me and made things very easy.

What is your take on your career curve so far?

Maanvi Gagroo: I am in a good space. I am very happy. I have been blessed with not just the roles but the people I have met during my journey. I fortunately don’t have any regrets. I am okay with all the decisions I have made in life, and have learnt a lot.

What are your upcoming projects?

Maanvi Gagroo: We are working on the fourth season of Four More Shots Please!