Abhilash Thapliyal: Hardships matured me as an artiste

Abhilash Thapliyal has been going through a rough patch in his personal life ever since 2018. First, his mother suffered a heart attack in 2018, followed by his father passing away because of cancer, and now his sisters are undergoing treatments, necessitating frequent travel between Mumbai and Delhi. Despite all his trials and tribulations. the radio jockey turned actor maintains a very positive outlook towards life. “All these hardships and experiences not only matured me as a human, but also as an artist,” he says.

Thapliyal however, points out how it’s easier said than done. “Bolna asaan hai because when your father dies, you do not know how to accept it. You have no idea how to process those emotions,” he says, adding, “But as artistes, once you start accepting the truths of life, you grow as a person and your art becomes better.” The actor claims that we as humans have the tendency to focus only on the positive aspects of life, but what we need to understand is if there are crusts, there will be troughs as well in equal numbers. “And you have to accept whatever comes your way,” explains the actor, who now believes that he has taken good time to process everything that has happened and now sees it as an inescapable reality of life.

Sharing a quote that he read a few years back, Thapliyal adds, “The quote was, ‘The only problem with experiences is, when you have it you can’t use it’ but in case of artistes like us, we definitely can. It might sound bizarre, but these tragedies help us become better actors. It allows us to feel and comprehend various emotions.” He goes on to explain how filming his show Aspirants during the time he lost his father helped him get over it. “What happens is that we build a world around our characters, and that world serves as our escape from these tragic times. That’s what I did when I lost my father,” shares Thapliyal, who also believes that “maturity” is nothing but these experiences. This is what makes you realise that you have grown up.

When asked if his work suffered during this period and how he managed to balance it all, Thapliyal says, “We come from middle-class families and have the pressure to start earning as soon as possible. There are EMIs to pay, chores to take care of, and medical treatments to complete, so no matter how evolved we become, we cannot think like the stars and say, ‘We will do what we want.’ Our needs take precedence over our desires. However, it wasn’t until my mother was undergoing treatment that I realised how preoccupied I was with my work. I used to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the radio station.”

Thapliyal claims that is when he learned the most important lesson of his life: to prioritise relationships over everything else. “We become so preoccupied with our jobs that we neglect our families, which is not a good thing. It’s important to strike a balance between work and family, but if you have to choose between the two, always prioritise family,” he concludes.