Actor Smriti Kalra, known for her roles in TV shows "12/24 Karol Bagh" and "Surveen Guggal - Topper of the Year", says her biggest fear when she started acting was that she would be typecast.

Kalra, who recently played the female lead in the movie "Darran Chhoo", says she avoided getting pigeonholed by declining repetitive roles.

"For my first television series, ‘12/24 Karol Bagh’ (2009), an offer I got pretty much straight out of college, I had to play a 30-year-old overweight professor. I didn’t mind that I had to gain weight or that I had to play someone much older than I was, but the character cried so much that I didn’t like her at all. I was afraid that I would end up playing characters like her all my life,” Kalra told PTI.

Her latest film, which released on October 13, is about facing one’s fears and perfectly reflects her life’s philosophy. The film also stars popular TV actor Karan Patel and Ashutosh Rana.

"In this industry, if you do a particular role, then you end up doing similar roles. Just as I feared, after ‘12/24 Karol Bagh’, I was getting similar roles initially. To be honest, I was tempted to say yes. But in the television world, it usually means you are stuck with the character, sometimes even for 18 hours a day. I just couldn’t do it,” Kalra said.

The actor said she knew her gamble had paid off when in 2012 she bagged the role of a small-town girl with big aspirations in "Suvreen Guggal – Topper of The Year", her second acting project.

"From playing a 30-year-old, I played a 17-year-old schoolgirl from Uttarakhand, who goes to Delhi for her college education. The series is about her journey, her aspirations," she said.

Although Kalra went on to play roles that she liked in a couple more television series after that, it was only after 12 years that she could finally manage to make it to the big screen.

"People do say that it is not easy for a television actor to get into films. Well, yes, but nothing in life is easy. You have to work your way towards it,” Kalra said.

It may have taken her more than a decade, but Kalra says she is happy that her first break in films was "Cash (2021)", a story set during demonetisation.

"I played an alpha, a street-smart girl who only thinks about herself. I was happy because it was different from all the characters I was playing so far.” "Darran Chhoo" was actually her third film. Kalra's second film, ‘Memory X’, which was shot in Sikkim, is yet to be released. The film, a time-travelling adventure, also stars Bengali actor Vikram Chatterjee.

Kalra is also a part of late actor-filmmaker Satish Kaushik’s "Kaagaz 2" along with Anupam Kher and Neena Gupta. The film is now in post-production and is more likely to be released before "Memory X".

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