The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination
-TOMMY LASORDA
Today we brought you the tale of Amrita Roy, who always believes in herself and her dreams. She is so determined toward her passion that she doesn’t even care about society and follows it. Since childhood, she was an ideal daughter, perfect student, and topper. Then she went into engineering, worked in an IT company, and lived abroad. The countries also offered her citizenship, so she had never experienced any failure.
She left abroad voluntarily and returned to India to pursue her dreams and follow her passion. For amrita, her dreams are important too. Many times people questioned her why she was doing all this? Why can’t she spend her life comfortably when she has a secure life?
Many times she fell apart and went through depressive episodes in her life. Still, she also didn’t give up and founded mental health initiative. Her first venture was named IMTHERE, and then GREENNOTE FILMS, her second venture, and now she and her production house is working with top OTT platforms as actor and filmmaker. So let’s know more about her journey and how her passion became her purpose.
Amrita Roy – My Story
Myself, Amrita Roy. I was born in a tiny town in West Bengal, and I belong to a middle-class family. My background was very humble. I would say so, as you know, in a Bengali family, the kids usually get a lot of exposure to add culture like dancing, singing, etc. At the age of 2, I went to dancing school before joining the school. My mother may have thought it would ease her babysitting time, so she put me there, but it helped my creative journey later.
So when I was doing my preprimary education, I participated in a dance competition where I got the first prize at the age of 3. I didn’t even remember this, but I later heard it from my teachers. So that’s how I can say my subconscious love for the stage began. But then, in a middle-class family, it’s always like the studies have to be the priority. Whatever you do, you have to study hard to get good marks. So I used to work very hard with my studies as I did not want to disappoint my parents, and I used to top in every class from nursery to 12th standard in whichever school I studied.
And it’s not like I wanted to top, but I just wanted to see my parents happy and proud. So I used to be an ideal daughter, an ideal student. My cousins, neighborhood kids, and everybody hated me because people would compare them wherever I went. But actually, I was a very fun-loving person, part of badass school gangs and my childhood was very culturally enriched.
After that, I went into engineering just like a good girl, and I also got placed just after giving my first interview. In short, I would say there is not a single failure that I have experienced in anything I have done till then. So then I joined an IT company, and I went on doing my job. I was doing good there also.
In a couple of years, I started managing a team. I was always very interested in being around people to be with them, motivate them, etc. My boss also noticed that, and he was like, why don’t you start managing people? I think you can do that well. I started that as I was always a people person.
Then every year, I was posted abroad in different countries because I was doing good with people and was able to get business for my company. It was almost crazy as in 5 to 6 years I visited almost 20 countries, some for living and some for travel. But at the same time, whenever I was in India, I did theater and modeling, which I loved doing.
Theater, dance class, all the things were going on, and a lot of time, my friends used to ask me to explore my acting career. They used to tell me that I am doing my job perfectly, but at the same time, I am also interested in acting, so why don’t I try this. But my family background was different, and none of my close friends were active in the film industry.
There was a lot of demotivation, caution, criticism, and significantly less support from people. They were pleased with my writing, casting, etc., and the camera jobs but not professional modeling or acting. And whoever knew me was like no, it’s a terrible profession. There was judgment if I was in any picture with any co-actors models or if my clothes were bold. I know that I had come from such a small town, but I did not understand if these were true as it is not healthy to create so many restrictions for someone.
In 2012 I participated in beauty pageants where I reached till semifinals. It happened a long time back when I lived away from home for the first time. And at that time, people don’t use Facebook or Instagram that much. So what you have to do is make direct contacts with directors, producers, and so on.
And then beauty pageants are the only place where directors and producers of the film directly meet you and offer you. So at that time, I also got some offers that I rejected just because of my work, and one reason was my family also because they used to say why are you spoiling your life? If you have a good job, why don’t you do that? So basically, I was not getting support from anywhere.
In 2016, I suddenly got a call when I was in Bangalore, and I did one national ad there and made many friends. I could not focus entirely on my acting and creative career because I was not in India much. It used to be like two months here than two months in some other country than 2 in some other, but if you want to do something, you have to be physically present there, and that was not happening..
After doing that ad shoot, I started getting offers again, so I thought that now I should take this acting thing seriously. Finally, I started taking up active modeling and acting jobs, and simultaneously my theater was also going on. After that, I was offered a Tamil film at that time, but then I went to Southeast Asia for new project work that too for a long term.
But I want to do the film, so I spoke to the director and will come back soon. Then there were some problems with the film, and they stopped it. Again I got sad because I came only for the film, not listening to family or friends, and it halted. I was neither here nor there, so everything seemed so spoiled. There was not much negativity around I started doubting myself. Then I thought that now I would continue my job and only when I get some actual work in acting will I do it.
At the same time, due to some events, 90% of my total social support system broke down. There were only a few people left with whom I could talk or share something. At that time, I was very alone, although I kept myself busy with work and parties and was surrounded by colleagues. It was the most depressing episode of my life, and it revealed a lot of people who were in my life, and I had to reorganize my life.
Then I started researching mental health because I had become a victim of depression somewhere, and I knew that I needed help as my family could not support me. It is not like they don’t love me or care about me. They didn’t know how to deal with a person with depression. Same with many close friends who meant well, but their way of support was not helping but bringing out more sadness.
In 2018, I participated in competition again at a pageant show and was named corporate diva. It was not a beauty contest. They measured your entrepreneur skills. They see that if you are running any corporate, how much you are contributing to our society. At that, I started my depression awareness initiative IMTHERE, which was my first startup. It aimed to create awareness of mental health and empower friends and family of depressed people to support them as the first line of defense.
Everybody cannot afford these psychiatrists or therapists. We educate the family and the friends of the person suffering from depression. So it was going on lots of volunteers joined us. Irfan Pathan was one of our benefactors. So a new journey began. I started creating content for it where my cinematographer friend helped me.
Then in 2019, I signed one Kannada film, and in between, I worked on ads and short films. In 2020 there was a photoshoot for that film, and my theater was also going very well. I took a sabbatical from work as my dates were blocked for at least six months for various shoots. I was working on a play in which we had a lot of plans that we were going to perform in 6 cities, but it didn’t happen due to pandemics.
Again, it was a disappointment because it seemed like my acting career was finally going somewhere, but boom, a significant roadblock. At the same time, I realized that I should not give up so early. Nothing has come to me quickly in my life.
Last year, due to covid- 19, there was a lockdown in the whole country. I used to make one short film a week to work on my acting skills. I didn’t show it to anyone or post it; I just made it with complete dedication and passion, even after 10-11 hours of office work, cooking, cleaning, and sanitizing by myself. In one short film, I asked one of my theater friends to enact a vital part in it.
On his insisting I sent one of the films to a reputed channel’s film festival. Many people send so many films there, but my film won, and that was also on mental health, that too shot on four different mobile phones in 4 different parts of India. After that, it won several other awards, including IMDb certified film festivals, and won nominations for prestigious Sun of the East awards.
So many people from our theater community started approaching us that they also wanted to work with us. During the lockdown, the second initiative, Greennote films, started. At that time, we used to shoot in an indoor location only. I had done all the work from acting, producing, and putting my own money to a spot girl like taking care of refreshments, arranging locations, carrying props and décor items, etc. We were shooting during the pandemic, so sanitizer was the most important and extra masks.
As I had to create content and make a short film, it was like I would do whatever I had to do. We had done a lot of hard work, and in the end, it paid off also because all those films were also gone to film festivals and were critically acclaimed. People appreciated acting also. And then we got connected to OTT platforms. Last year only, we started with 4 OTTs. We shared our films on MX player, then amazon prime, then apple TV, here then TATA sky shots which is a broadcast TV.
We make many films as the audience is also enjoying and the content is also good and has an underlying message. Finally, I can tell my readers that potential and results are two different things. We judge ourselves based on our potential, but the world will judge us based on the result. Somebody may be hugely talented and have potential, but the thing is /she is not getting that chance.
There was a time when I could not sleep at night just because I used to think that I won’t be able to get up in the morning alive. It’s seemed as if my life is pointless as from everywhere, what I was getting is disappointments. When no one, not even a single person, trusts your dreams or respects your talent, trusting oneself becomes Difficult.
It has happened to me on sets that I prepared and into the character but faced bullying, which impacted the performance. When there is so much negativity everywhere, then the situation of self-doubt seems to happen.
With time, I have learned to handle things and that the people who criticize others or try to harm others are insecure. We cannot please everyone, and what they speak about you may not be accurate and just out of jealousy. They may gain in the short term, but long-term work and creativity take hard work, not gossip.
Now my work is being recognized. Both ImThere and Greennote are going great. Through ImThere, we motivated a lot of people during this pandemic. It’s a rewarding experience when the content created with hard work gets its due.
The biggest challenge is in any industry that most people don’t take young females seriously, even if they are talented, capable, and hardworking. Those girls have to work probably twice or thrice hard as any male counterpart to prove their worth. It exists everywhere in every industry, and I experienced it, and it is not the industry’s problem, but it’s a problem of our patriarchal society.
This bias-ness exists more in India or Asian countries than in western ones. Western countries give more importance and appreciation to your work than your gender. But having said that, I’m thankful to some of my close male colleagues and actor friends, like Ani, Chand, Pavan, Rakshith, some known actors, and directors from the Hindi film industry (not mentioning names). They put their faith in me for ongoing and upcoming projects as actors and filmmakers.
Thankful to some of my family members, some of my childhood friends, and college friends. The list is long. It’s just the beginning of a journey, so there are many more people I’d love to collaborate with and create meaningful content with.
The only regret I hold is that I listened for a long time to the negative people toward people who are trying anything different and succeeding. A life lesson that I would like to give is to question everything we are taught to believe because our culture is as such that it will be beneficial to lead a life of conformity.
Since childhood, I ticked all boxes of an Ideal successful lady, but the question is who made these boxes for me. And that is the thing you should make your boxes and tick them up. Just follow your dreams many times, and you will fall apart, but your hard work will pay off. People will say what their work is to say, but you should not stop because of them.
I plan to create more and more content, primarily focusing on the social taboo stuff and many stories, from small towns to metro cities to Europe and Australia everywhere, as that’s the life I’ve lived. These stories are not seen anywhere, neither in any movie nor on the web yet. I want to create such content that many people could relate to because even today, some stories are not coming out, so they will also think that, yes, someone is bringing our stories.
Through ImThere I want to educate many people and talk about mental health at a very mass level because now I am just influencing only thousands of people. Still, afterward, I want to increase this number as everyone should be aware of it, and no one goes to sleep at night thinking if their lives matter or not.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Films of mine right now on different OTTs – Apagaman neeti ( I play the cold-blooded villain – streaming on Apple TV, Amazon prime video US, UK, MX Player), Night alone ( female lead – currently on Airtel X stream, Hungama play, MX player and soon on Disney + Hotstar).
Film Within – acted and directed by me – shot remotely in lockdown is the film on mental health. It is the winner of the outstanding achievement award in Tagore International film festival, nominated for prestigious Sun of the East awards, winner of Six Sigma worldwide lockdown contest, and many more) – streaming on the six Sigma channel. Kanke mental asylum – female lead – streaming on sofy.tv Switzerland.
I’m currently working on Stalked’s web series and a couple more web projects that we cannot disclose.
Film production page – instagram.com/greennotefilms
Initiative for mental health – ImThere – http://facebook.com/imThere1
Feel free to join us as volunteers and make many depressed people smile.
I am also a trained singer and dancer. I have extensively worked as a show host/ anchor/VJ for events, corporate shows, and sports channels. I have lived and worked in Australia, Europe, the UK, and South East Asia in the corporate sector, and now in India to pursue my acting career.
Awards in the mental health category – India Excellence award 2019
Young Inspiring Indian for depression awareness – social service category.
Corporate Diva 2018 communication champion and top 5 finalists.
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