A page from the personal diary of Shantanu Maheshwari Hello everyone, this is Shantanu Maheshwari your Swayam of Dil Dostii Dance (D3) on Channel [V]. I am here today to acquaint myself with you. I was born and brought up in Kolkata, but since my dreams lay in Mumbai I had to come here to fulfill them. Acting, to me, has happened by pure luck. It so happened that I had gone to take part in a dance competition where I was spotted. Someone asked me to appear for an audition. I was very cool with auditioning thinking that there was no harm in attempting to get into a show. But then God knows what happened and I just got selected for Dil Dostii Dance. I always thought of coming on screen but never thought that it will happen like this and I will become famous among the youth. For me, Swayam is everything; it has given me more than I expected from life. I think knowledge does not come without experience and practical knowledge is better that theoretical knowledge. Similarly, acting is something that I have imbibed along with the growth of Swayam in the show. And yes, I am not a trained dancer but have grown by learning it. My family has always been my backbone; they have always supported in every dream of mine. As a matter of fact, it was my mom’s conviction that I should try my hands at acting. I would prefer to be in what I am right now. Daily soaps are something I have not thought about yet and am sure that I don’t even fit into any of its category. It is really hard to maintain those characters on screen because I am more into youth-based concepts. I would also love to see myself working behind the camera as a director or any position in the creative department because, for me, it’s a very fascinating job. I tried certain things on sets of D3 but am sure that I need to first learn the basics of it. I even want to get into choreography because I love to teach dance and do different experiments in the art. I have a very good bonding with every co-star of D3; we are like best friends forever in real life too. I have a wish that D3 should be turned into a movie in which I would want to play Swayam. Well friends, this is all for now. Hoping to come back soon with some more of Shantanu, your Swayam.