how ronit & rohit roy made it big?

I'm from Ahmedabad. I stayed with a family friend, until I found my bearings in Mumbai. I've strayed, made my share of mistakes, made wrong career choices, had bad dealings... I've been through all of that.

I got my first break in television in 1996, in a serial called Samjhota with Bhagyashree, for Doordarshan Network.

I've struggled for years, and am still slugging it out. You can never say your struggle is over. It goes on. Yes, it may get easier.

You get work, you make enough money to buy a bigger house, but you still struggle. If you want to stay in this industry, you have to work hard.

I was at the right place at the right time. Balaji gave me a great platform. Since then, the going is good (Roy plays the popular character Mihir Virani in Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Mr Bajaj in Kasautii Zindagii Kay).

I was always confident that I would find my space. My portrayal of Rishabh Malhotra in Swabhimaan (1995) was lapped up by the audience and there was no looking back after that. It was accidental, actually. I was in my then girlfriend (now wife) Manasi Joshi's house when she got a call from Mahesh Bhatt's unit for a serial.

Manasi refused because she was modelling those days and was not interested in television.

When she told me that they were making an afternoon daily, I was intrigued. Dailes were not heard of those days, and an afternoon daily was an even more alien concept.

I called them up and asked if I could audition. But I was rejected by the entire team of directors and writer Shobha De. They found me too MTVish and funky. I'd wear earrings and flashy clothes which they thought did not go well with the character of a young, angry, industrialist's son.