At times I would wonder if they (actors) were for real!

A page from the personal diary of Pooja Joshi I have been a mischievous kid. My childhood memories are the best though am sure, for my mother it must have been the worst. I remember I would keep throwing vessels from the window and my mother would run down to get them back till I would throw them again. I feel I am still childish at times. I have met people who mature much before their age and then there are those who try to be serious all the time. I can’t be either. I am just the way I am. I have another problem – once I start laughing, I can’t stop. There have been times on the sets when I start laughing and I do not stop and no one on the set can then shoot. I can laugh at anything and everything be it someone fumbling with a dialogue or falling. It’s not that I like laughing at people but I cannot stop. There have been times when the director would scold me for laughing. I had never planned to get into acting. I wanted to be a teacher and I had even thought of becoming an airhostess. But, one fine day I participated in a Sanskrit play but I was so scared to be on the stage, that my legs were shaking but somehow I managed to complete it. My mother saw me on stage and told me I could make it as an actress. I thought about it and the moment I was sure about it, I took the first flight to Mumbai. But things did not happen soon. It took time. My first show was on DD1, after which I got Prithviraj Chauhan, post which I did Sujata and Mera Sasural. Even after bagging a role in a daily soap, I couldn’t believe I was seeing actors, who I always watched on TV, moving around me. At times, I would sit back wondering if they were for real. I think that’s how people watching us on TV feel. I remember my pregnancy track was going on in Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai and there was this scene, where the driver had to drive me and my Nani fast to a place. When the director said, ‘Action’, the driver drove the car but very slowly. The director asked for a retake but he continued to drive slowly till I asked him why he was doing so. He turned around and said, ‘Madam, you are pregnant, how can I drive fast?’ I was stumped.