From getting the role without auditioning to Shah betting on her retakes; Ganguly reveals how she bagged Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai

Rupali Ganguly is most adored for her character Monisha, however, not everyone know how she bagged the role. In a podcast with Ranveer Allahabadia, the actress got candid about her journey with the show, her co-stars and more.

I haven't changed a bit, I am still Monisha Sarabhai only. I am not Anupamaa in real life. I miss the show all the time, we have a group on WhatsApp and we are active every day. For us, Sarabhai is not over, it still continues.

We were doing some event and there Khichdi's team had come and I went to take their autograph. That time I used to do Sanjeevani and I played the negative lead in the show. So our writer Aatish Kapadia had seen a scene from the show which was 8 minutes long and there were two people talking and all I was doing was giving expressions to their conversation. Aatish bhai saw it and said that I was doing comedy. Though I had done it seriously.

So Aatish bhai saw me and he sent somebody to share the story of Sarabhai with me. And that person made it seem that Sarabhai was a serious show. And in those days, after Sanjeevani, I was getting negative roles. So listening to the storyline, I thought Maya was the negative role and I had to play the part of Maya.

So I asked him who was playing Indravadan and he said Satish Shah, then I asked about the son, and he said Sumeet Raghavan, and they had first thought of calling him Sanjay and not Sahil. I didn't ask him about Monisha at all. So I told him that I would look young to play Sumeet's mother. And he said, 'ekaj minute' and then he called Aatish bhai.

I went to meet Aatish bhai and at that time I used to drive an Indica. It was stuffed with so many things that I barely had space to sit. I had this huge teddy which I used to keep next to me as it used to look like a silhouette of a man sitting next to me. Those days, I used to live in Worli so I used to travel with that teddy in the car, people would think there was a man sitting with me.

So I went with that over-stuffed car to meet Aatish Bhai and the moment I got out of the car, I fell flat on my face. When I introduced myself, he said 'Monisha' and that's how I got cast for the show. He was convinced looking at my messy car and didn't even take an audition for it.

I am Monisha, I only act as Anupamaa, but I am a real-life Monisha. I can bargain at any store, especially in the big stores I believe it's my birthright to bargain. I even bargain for those special prices in the stores.

That was the best, it was 10 days of therapy that we did, it was not work but therapy for us. The vibe was completely different. I used to do 4 shows at that time so shooting for Sarabhai felt like therapy to me. Initially, I was very nervous as I was working with such a talented cast who were great names in comedy and I had done Sanjeevani.

Initially, Satish Shah (kaka) would bet on me that how many retakes will I take for the scene. And he would be like 'I am betting 50 on her' let's see. So in such a situation, anybody would get nervous, and I was petrified.

We used to share rooms and Ratna Ji and I had to share rooms. I was petrified, as I was walking chaos and Ratna ji was meticulous. I gave a bigger bed and, a bigger mirror her. And I was surrounded by plastic bags. We were all the same except Sumeet, he was really calm onscreen but he is extremely mastikhor.