MUMBAI: Actor Kunal Thakkur is a name synonymous with tennis in India today. He attributes his success to not getting work in television as an actor. I did a few shows with balaji telfilms and my character in Bandini was very appreciated. After that I gave over 500 auditions but was just not getting any work. I chose not to get depressed and remembered Ronit Roy's words that he used to tell us on the sets of Bandini. He said that an actors life is very fickle and a back up is most important. 

That is when I started my own tennis academy KTTFA, since I have been a professional tennis player and played till national level. I'm proud that I have 5 academies in Mumbai now along with the Tennis Premier League that I founded with my friend Mrunal Jain. TPL is in its fourth season and it feels great that I have names like Leander Paes, Sania Mirza, Rakul Preet Singh, Vishal Bharadwaj and Sonali Bendre associated with our league. I now truly believe that sometimes life doesn't give you something not because you don't deserve it but because you deserve something much bigger. Today, I am happy that along with my established business and league I have the liberty of pursuing my passion for acting. Because I had not done television for the past 6 years I bagged a role in Siddharth Kumar Tewary's "Escaype Live" a much awaited web show on Hotstar. I play the role of the CTO of the Escaype Live App and it was a great experience working with prolific actors like Siddharth and Javed Jaffery. 

The approach on a web series shoot is so different and I learnt a lot.  I hear so many actors getting into depression because of no work..but I just want to tell them all that dont give up on your dreams but always have a back up plan.

Escaype Live which has already created a stir will be streaming on Hotstar from the 20th May.