Making her Bollywood debut with Sikandar Ka Muqaddar, Ridhima Pandit of Bahu Hamari Rajnikant fame acknowledges it was no mean feat. After a long wait for the right opportunity, she says, “I’ve realised that it’s not really in our hands to get the best of the projects. Playing important parts and being noticed is what I’m vying for at the moment. So I was very nervous [about Sikandar Ka Muqaddar].” 

Pandit, who also shot for a Marathi film and is awaiting release, plays a nurse in the Neeraj Pandey-directed Netflix film that premièred on November 29. Without revealing too much about her role, she describes how she landed it. “It was a phase when I was absolutely clueless and didn’t know what to do. I kept wondering why I wasn’t getting decent work. A casting director, who was surprised to learn that I am Maharashtrian, asked me to contact another casting agent looking for an actor for Neeraj Pandey’s film. They initially didn’t approach me because I’ve mostly played glamorous roles. I told them that I was ready to be even a fly on the wall, but I want to be in the project. Within two hours of sending my audition video, I was selected,” she says.  For Pandit, working with Pandey was a dream come true. “Neeraj sir is an institution in himself. They had already auditioned over 50 people for the role and were exasperated. I guess it was destined for me. Neeraj sir is very selective about his actors and has often repeated them in his projects. I think it’s a compliment to be selected by him,” she remarks.