Sumona Chakravarti: Not winning an award doesn’t mean people didn’t appreciate m

Till the time you actually don’t hear your name getting announced, it gets difficult to believe. I had my hands clenched tightly right around the announcement. I was overwhelmed. Any form of an accolade boosts you to do better and it is your hard work that is appreciated at the end of the day.

I realised that I did my first show on Indian television in 2006 and it’s 2023, that’s 17 years! I have been nominated before, but it was actually the first time that I won it. My heart was racing when my name was announced. I actually went blank for five seconds when I was holding it in my hand. It felt great.

I had won a Dadasaheb Phalke award for comedy a few years ago and the state of Uttar Pradesh also gave me an award once, but those are like a celebration of my work in the field of comedy. But to actually win an award among many other nominated actors in the running, it was my first in that arena. I think there is a time for everything to happen. I have been working since 17 years, but many think that Kapil Sharma Show or Bade Ache Lagte Hain was my first show but that’s not true. I got fame because of these shows but I had done a lot of work before that. Even in the last 10 years, I have done other work as well. Sometimes, there are some things that you don’t question and it is not in your hands. You do your bit, but you’ve got to let time take its course. Not winning an award doesn’t mean that people didn’t recognise or appreciate my work.

It is very expensive to go to that institute. Back in the day, I did not have the money to go there. And, what I feel is that there is no specific age for learning. You can learn anything and whenever you want. Moreover, I was working and there was no time to do that alongside then. I was always learning on the sets, so it was kind of an informal training that I got. I have literally learnt everything on the set, so there was never a schooled technical training. It was an intensive two week course in Bombay and I had the time so I took it. The experience was sublime, to be very honest.