“I am impulsive. And I also feel the pulse of what is happening around me,” she says. One such decision changed her life forever: putting everything on hold, giving herself six months, and catching a 3 a.m. train to Mumbai. “That leap shaped a lot of fluid aspirations I had kept bottled in me.”
Shreyasi Sharma has always trusted her impulses. “I am impulsive. And I also feel the pulse of what is happening around me,” she says. One such decision changed her life forever: putting everything on hold, giving herself six months, and catching a 3 a.m. train to Mumbai. “That leap shaped a lot of fluid aspirations I had kept bottled in me.”
The journey was not without challenges, but she never viewed them as setbacks. “I don’t take challenges as a bad thing. No story is interesting without a conflict. It makes the purpose more exciting and exhilarating,” she reflects. What matters to her is clarity knowing when to lean in and when to step away. “Serve yourself, your roots, share shade and light with others around you. It is like being a tree.”
Her roots in storytelling run deep. Shreyasi first stepped on stage at the age of 8, and it quickly became sacred to her. Even as she pursued biotechnology, art remained her true calling. “I realised, maybe what keeps me up at night is what my dreams are made of. I have to give that a fair chance as well.” Cinema, for her, is a space of connection. “I love how cinema and storytelling can unite families and strangers in a shared experience on any given day.”
But with art comes doubt. On imposter syndrome, she’s clear-eyed: “If it is anxiety, I go right through it with patience. If it is about self-worth, a woman like me is always aware of her worth and her place in her field. It is the world around her that is delusional and not up to the terms.”
Her life lessons are sharp and rooted in honesty. “I realised a little late that I am not entering a new world. The new world is entering mine.” On balance, she admits it’s a constant struggle, but clarity of priorities helps. “Ease up on the gas pedal of life and cruise on steady. The so much hyped about Me-time is a luxury. Buy that first.”
Even failures became turning points. In 2014, when she couldn’t afford admission to the New York Film School, she moved to Mumbai instead, a decision that opened doors she hadn’t imagined. For her, success now is simple: “Good health.”
Her advice to young women is both playful and practical: “Stop overthinking, after 1 p.m. Don’t pack a lot of baggage of all kinds on yourself and take the leap. Pack good shoes and a badminton racket.”
Two decades into her journey, Shreyasi continues to tell stories that carry her signature honesty and boldness. “Everything I write has a part of me in some way or the other,” she says and that’s exactly what makes her stories resonate.
