Shruti Haasan shared the life-changing advice she received from Akshay Kumar during their collaboration in the 2015 film Gabbar Is Back. Akshay advised her to focus on rewards rather than awards, a piece of advice that she recalled as transformative.
In a recent podcast with Pinkvilla, Shruti discussed the best advice an actor had ever given her. She mentioned, “Mr. Akshay Kumar told me, ‘Focus on rewards, not awards.'”
Shruti elaborated on how this advice changed her perspective, especially since her family had a long shelf of awards—her mother has a National Award, and her father also has National Awards. She said, “I was feeling like, ‘I’m zero, I’m nothing.’ But then I realized that I was just working, growing at my own pace. Once I focused on the reward system, not just financial rewards, I started enjoying my work more.”
During the conversation, Shruti also discussed her role in Welcome Back, where she felt that there was less comedy than what she had done in Telugu and other projects. She expressed her love for comedy, even though it was a smaller part of her role in the film.
Regarding her absence from Bollywood in recent years, Shruti explained, “It’s not that I’ve avoided it, but I shifted to where I got more work, more work that appreciates me or gives me a better platform.” She mentioned that before the pandemic, she had already taken a brief break, and things had changed in the film industry, including in Mumbai and Bollywood’s approach to OTT platforms.
Finally, Shruti expressed her love for Hindi films and her desire to work on exciting projects that truly interest her. She mentioned receiving some offers but felt that they weren’t compelling enough.
