Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai’s Pranali Rathod recalls her initial days: Used to face so many rejections; calls Harshad Chopda a ‘good friend’

After playing a negative character, one with comical elements and other such, actor Pranali Rathod found her breakthrough after she played a docile bahu on TV. The actor became an overnight sensation and is currently living her “dream life” – even though that means she gets no social life. “I don’t do anything. I just shoot and go home. There is no social life. If it is someone’s birthday, I go post pack up only, which is very rare. But ghar jaane ke baad sukoon and thakan waali feeling hits differently. I have always imagined this life for me. Whatever fun I had to do, I did it in college,” Rathod shares.

Rathod, 26, was quite young when she used to watch serials with her mother and wondered playing those characters. “I used to enact those scenes. I was quite a drama queen,” she recalls. However, to make her dream a reality, Rathod had a long road ahead. “It was quite difficult to bag my first project. I used to step out with my Mumma for auditions and spend my entire day auditioning. I used to face so many rejections. There came a point when I felt like I don’t think I’m meant to do this. I was not able to get anything and I had invested a year already. I used to think, ‘Main iske (acting) liye bani nahi hoon. But my family was very supportive. My mom always asked me to learn from those rejections, she was my biggest motivator. She has struggled with me all along,” she elaborates.

As she completes five years in the industry, Rathod admits she was quite a novice at the beginning. “I’ve become a new Pranali. The old one ko kuch samajh nahi aata. I am still learning but I have grown as a person and an actor. I have met a lot of good people who have taught me a lot,” she mentions. However, given the sudden rise to fame Rathod also believes the new found fame won’t shake her heads from her shoulders. “I doubt I will ever be arrogant. Every time someone comes up to me, I get very emotional,” she says.

With the sudden fame, the intrigue in her personal life has also risen. If multiple sources are to be believed Rathod is dating actor Harshad Chopda, whom she met on the sets of her TV show Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai. However, she denies anything between the two. “We are really good friends. We have been shooting for a long time. Hum bohot acche dost hai…I don’t know how to explain this to people,” she clarifies. Is there anything else apart from friendship? She replies, “Absolutely not.”

Currently, Rathod is excited for the Gangaur track in the show, for which she wore authentic Rajasthani costumes for the first time.