3 min readMumbaiFeb 17, 2026 06:58 PM IST
Even before the release of her debut film, Shanaya Kapoor already had multiple offers in her kitty. After all, she was an up and coming star, with an Instgram following running in millions, and also the daughter of actor and ’90s star Sanjay Kapoor and Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives star Maheep Kapoor.
But then, a couple of setbacks happened which changed the course of her career trajectory. She was a part of a dream launch called Bedhadak opposite The Ba***ds of Bollywood star Lakshya, with Shashank Khaitan as the director and Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions as the banner. But owing to creative differences, the project got shelved.
“When I look back at it now, I feel everything happens for a reason. Maybe I wasn’t meant to do those films. Maybe I was meant to do something completely different. Looking at it in hindsight now, I feel glad my career shaped this way,” Shanaya told SCREEN in an exclusive interview while promoting her new movie, Bejoy Nambiar’s romantic adventure thriller Tu Yaa Main, in which she’s cast opposite Adarsh Gourav.
She made her debut last year in a role opposite Vikrant Massey in Santosh Singh’s romantic drama Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan. That was months after her casting didn’t materialize in Nanda Kishore’s pan-India fantasy action film Vrusshabha, starring Malayalam superstar Mohanlal. Acting on an advice from her father, Shanaya kept her focus on becoming an actor instead of just a star.
“My father said to become an actor, you don’t even need a film offer anymore. You can just take a camera, go out there, shoot and put that out online. After a point, even he never waited for any more chances,” says Shanaya, whose father Sanjay Kapoor is now one of the busiest actors in India despite his decline as a star in the 1990s.
Shanaya’s journey also started behind the camera instead of in front of it. “I used to love being on the stage in school. I was never the main character. I was once just the ‘wind’ in one of the plays, and I had the best time doing that! There was a Cinderella play happening, and all the girls were auditioning for Cinderella obviously, but I just wanted to be the backstage manager,” recalls Shanaya.
Shanaya then went on to become an Assistant Director on Sharan Sharma’s Netflix India movie Gunjan Saxena: The Kargill Girl, which was produced by Karan Johar and starred Janhvi Kapoor in the lead role. Shanaya will now finally star in a Dharma Productions project, playing the lead character in a series follow-up to Johar’s 2012 hit directorial Student of the Year.
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“Being an assistant director just opened my eyes. More than the acting bug, it made me realize the value of filmmaking a lot more. There’s so much that happens in just creating the moment of an actor walking from point A to point B. The audience just feels it’s a moment gone by, but there’s a lot of time and effort that go into just that passing shot,” adds Shanaya.
