MUMBAI: Amrita Prakash, who has been part of showbiz since she was four years old, says that she loves it when people recognise her and talk about her childhood.

The pretty actress started her career as a four-year-old with advertising. Her first TVC was for a local footwear company in Kerala. Then she went on to work in over 50 commercials for prominent brands including Rasna, Ruffles Lays, Glucon D, Dabur etc.

Amrita loves it that her fans associate with different parts of her life.

She says, “I feel really blessed because this country has watched me grow up. They have seen me right from when I was a chubby four-year-old to a gawky teenager to now an adult. I feel extremely grateful every time I see “Then to Now” posts and articles about me. I think it is just so sweet that people connect with different phases of my life and looks. I feel really blessed to have had the opportunity to have my entire journey traced by the audiences, and to have grown up under the eyes and love of the Indian audience. They have been kind enough to not just accept me but to love me through all my years.” 

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“And now, the reactions I get as an adult, are more than just comments on my looks- they are usually, ‘Oh my God! we have seen you as a teenager.’ I love that a large part of the country reacts to me having grown up, like an old aunty you meet at a wedding who hasn’t seen you in years- with a ‘kitni badi ho gayi tu’ warmth. It’s just so endearing,” she adds.

Amrita was last seen in Shakti – Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki and says that she loved her role.

“My character in Shakti was called Jasleen, Harman’s childhood best friend, who moved to Canada 20 years ago.  The beauty of this character was her unconditional love for Harman.”

On actor Vivian Dsena and rest of the cast and crew, Amrita says, “I am someone who has been fortunate enough to get along with the cast and crew of all the shows and movies that I have worked on. But somehow, Shakti was a little different. I feel very warmly about each one and shared a different equation and bond with every cast member. It is always difficult for a new character to enter a show that has been running for so long as the cast is usually quite close and has its own equations with each other. But the team of Shakti was so welcoming to me. I had to put in no effort to break the ice with any of them.”

“I believe one of the cosmic reasons I came on board with the Shakti team is to work with beautiful people and be able to make true friends. Working with Vivian has been one of the most fun experiences. He and I got along like a house on fire. And in him, I have most certainly found a very good friend that I intend to keep. He is an absolute brat with me and doesn’t consider me a female co-star, instead treats me like his younger brother…Relentlessly playing pranks and troubling me. We developed a very lovely bond and found it extremely easy and fun to work with each other,” sheconcludes.