Anupamaa actor Sudhanshu Pandey on the importance of competition: It helps one grow and evolve

Sudhanshu Pandey has earned quite a fan following for his compelling portrayal of Vanraj Shah in Anupamaa. The actor recently opened up about the role competition plays in fostering one’s growth.

In conversation with news agency IANS, Pandey said that competition was absolutely necessary, as it gave people the push to improve themselves. In the absence of that, things would start to feel monotonous. “One must feel competition in order to grow and evolve because it’s important”, he said.

The actor spoke of how he felt that talent took precedence over everything else when it came to finding one’s footing in the industry. Pandey said that he believed having a manager or managing company did not make much of a difference. People ultimately made the decision on selecting actors for their projects based on the latter’s talents. If one’s work was good, people would definitely want to work with you. In such cases people would approach them personally with job offers, rather than through managers. Contacting people through managers always brought a risk of communication gaps with it.

Pandey also opened up about how he felt there wasn't a lot in terms of variety of projects these days. The actor said that he felt most of them looked similar these days. However, he admits that there are a number of opportunities available for actors, and they had a lot of scope to work across a plethora of platforms as well.

In Anupamaa, Pandey shares the screen with Rupali Ganguly, Gaurav Khanna, Madalsa Sharma Chakraborty and Sagar Parekh, among others. Pandey reprised his role as Vanraj in the prequel to the popular show, titled Anupama: Namaste America. Both Anupamaa and Anupama: Namaste America are available for streaming on Disney+Hotstar. Pandey’s last film appearance came in Shahid Kapoor’s sports drama Jersey.