From having a debt of Rs 3.5 crores to living in a car and eating Rs 20 food packets for lunch; Rashami Desai opensup about her struggling phase before Bigg Boss 13

Rashami Desai has been a renowned name in the Industry. In the recent podcast with Paras Chhabra, the actress got candid about her initial struggles in the TV industry, her financial struggles and more. Take a look at what Rashami has to share:

Today's world is very different, people are very judgemental. People don't know you but they claim to know you but yet they don't know your journey. There is a certain privacy and life that we have that we keep away from the trolls. They aren't leaving PM, God, in terms of trolling so we are very small. At a point, even my family was dragged that is when I took a stand and slammed the trolls. There was this page and they picked my brother's photo and connected it in shameful ways. Social media has the power to ruin our relationships with such forged content.

During COVID, I got my family back. I was really happy as I had never experienced family time. I started working at a very young age, hum sab kaam karte the tab humara ghar chalta tha. When we started living together, that is when I realised how family functions. I feel, for me the lockdown time was a blessing in disguise. But I was completely drained financially.

I don't come from a great background. My mother had worked hard, she gave us an education. My brother got married, unfortunately, my life had many ups and downs. 2017 was a phase where we had many family disputes and I was financially at zero and I had crores of debt. That is when I got the show Dil Se Dil Tak. Whatever I earned from that, I secured my future with it. I first cleared all the debt and loans from the money I earned and I didn't know how to make investments. That was one time when I had blocked everyone and kept earning.

That is when I even bought my house, and during that time I started falling ill. I didn't have choices and I did Bigg Boss thinking that after that I could take a break. But God had other plans. I was the highest-paid contestant in BB13.

I take up responsibilities and I fulfill them. During that time, I had bought the house and I was in around Rs 3.5 cr debt. I thought everything was going fine and suddenly my show was shut and I was literally on the streets. I had Audi A6 and I had kept all my belongings at the manager's place. I had completely separated from my family and I was living in the Audi for 4 days. For Rs 20 you would get food which had kankad, you would get dal rice in plastic bags and 2 rotis in paper. I had eaten that for four days thinking aaj ka khana ho gaya.

My first TV show was Ravan and I was playing Mandodari in the show. I was trying my luck on TV and the shoot was in Umergaon. During exams, I used to face a lot of difficulties as my college was in Mumbai. I remember when I got Rs 30,000 first time, my mom had tears in her eyes. For her my first paycheck was priceless. She has been my manager since then.

I was a very good dancer in the early days, all I wished was background dancer bhi ban jau would be enough. But god had different plans, I did my first Bhojpuri film opposite Ravi Kishan and that was such a huge hit that I received a national award for it. I never looked back, then I was studying as well. I was in NM College, and all that I thought was with my studies I would become an Air Hostess, but God had better plans for me and pushed me into acting.

Then through Nadeem bhai, I got Dil Se Dil Tak. That show was not easy, I had a lot of problems and had to face some tough days with it. I completed my loans with that show. I used to work so much, and do events for the extra money. I would show that everything is fine but from inside I would feel like dying. I was in a lot of pain. Jeevita and Hemlata supported me the most during this testing time with me.

I think this was god's lesson for me. In terms of my personal and professional life. I got divorced and didn't have friends at that time as I never used to open up about my problems. My family thought all my decisions were wrong. I was unable to understand where my life was going. Those 4 days taught me everything.