Life’s too short to restrict yourself to one thing

Gurnaaz Kaur

She has done music videos, acted in Punjabi films and Hindi TV serials, written two books, so the title Shilpa Dhar feels apt for herself is artiste. Her journey from Chandigarh to Mumbai has been an eventful one. After having been the face of Punjabi videos for the best of singers such as Wadali Brothers, Harbachan Shera, Lakhwinder Wadali, Veer Divinder, Iknoor Sidhu, Sardool Sinkander and Master Saleem, she felt something was still missing. 

“I was in college when someone suggested I tried for acting and my first video itself won the best song of the year, which led to more videos and there was no looking back. But after almost three years, I realised there is more to me. I then decided to assist in films and got to play the part of assistant director as well as actress in Sirfire. Luck was on my side and I became a part of Babu Maan’s Desi Romeoes and Jacky Shroff’s Lucky Di Unlucky Story.” 

Acting ignited her passion and Shilpa decided to move to Mumbai. Some shows and ads later, she ventured into writing. She has authored two books Falling for Love Again and The Heart’s Planet. One may wonder if it could be the lack of opportunities as the reason for her constant shift from one thing to another, but she says, “Everything in art is connected, and there is a point where they all meet. Be it acting, dancing, orating, writing, painting, I like to be engaged in all and I make an extra effort for that.”

She believes life is too short to restrict yourself to one thing. Whatever interests her, she plunges into it and this time it has been writing and singing a song. She has recently come up with her first single Jungle Jungle, a song she started working on in 2017. “Back then I had written the lyrics; I have in fact written multiple songs, but I decided to record this one. Last year in November, we shot it in Dubai and finally released it late last month. It all took so much time because I wanted to nourish it myself; invest as much time as it took because it’s my baby and I am too attached to it.” 

Having explored such different fields, it is writing that is most satisfying for her soul and acting that she enjoys thoroughly, but not for TV. She has her reasons for that. “I don’t see myself doing TV shows because life gets so monotonous there. It’s all about studio-home, home-studio for a year and more for each show and that’s very boring. Films on the other hand bring a change in locations, there is travelling, you wrap up work in a month or so; it’s creatively motivating.”

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