Vaani Kapoor has been subjected to a mix bag of emotions and reception this year professionally. While she achieved success with Raid 2 and garnered appreciation for her OTT debut with Mandala Murders recently, the controversy around Abir Gulaal made her a target for a lot of backlash and criticism.

Ask her how she dealt with it and Vaani Kapoor shares, “As a human being, you can figure out who you really are, when you are at your lowest. That’s when you decide if you are going to become cynical, hateful and frustrated because it’s so easy to go down that road. You can either be like ‘it’s not my problem’,or get into the self victim mode where you are like all bad things happen to me. It’s easy to rile yourself up in those thoughts.”

But it’s spirituality that helped her: “I am spiritually driven as well and I know how to bring myself back to the centre. Also, I do love my job and it’s not like I have not received love. People have been kind to me as well, and I value that a lot. All you need at that point is a glimmer of hope. Luckily, I’ve always had a project to look forward to next and start fresh. That’s all I can do as that’s all that there is in my hands,” she says.

The actor adds, “Of course restlessness happens, and anxiety takes over. You are also fighting the pre-conceived notions and judgement from everywhere. People have access to put in their opinions, especially due to social media, and sometimes they can be really brutal. I get that most of it is noise, but there are people who give you honest constructive feedback. So, I have learned how to separate noise from feedback.”

But even with that attitude, sometimes the negativity gets to her too: “I’m also on those platforms, and sometimes it hurts you and stings you a little. You feel why would someone be mean, why would they go personal, or why would they berate somebody. But then I choose to react better to it. I ask myself do I want to give up because I got bullied or I got hate or do I want to continue? I still believe in myself, and there are people who believe in me, so I can’t complain much. But do I want more? Yes, of course I want more and better work.”