Wamiqa Gabbi was ready to quit Bollywood, said yes to Ranveer Singh's 83 as she wanted to ‘visit London'

Indian Express

5 days ago

Actor Wamiqa Gabbi's career seems to be taking off at a decent pace, as the actor is currently bearing the fruits of her recent release Bhool Chuk Maaf with Rajkummar Rao. The 31-year-old has acted alongside some of the biggest stars in the industry and has been involved with acting since the age of 13. Despite all that, the actor recently admitted that at one point in her career she had made up her mind about quitting Bollywood, and how a small role in the Ranveer Singh-Deepika Padukone starrer '83 made her realise her love for acting.
While promoting Bhool Chuk Maaf with Rajkummar Rao and director Karan Sharma, the actor shared many stories from her days as a background artist on the sets of Imtiaz Ali movies and how she learnt loads about how a film gets made just by observing him and the actors. 'I was full of dreams back then. I was maybe in 7th grade, and that's when I shot Jab We Met (2007). My initial learnings of how to be on set came from my experience there. I used to observe the notes Imtiaz Sir used to give, and I'm glad that I was around him, Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan.'
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She also shared a story from the sets of Love Aaj Kal and how Imtiaz and the entire crew surprised her with an incredible gesture on her birthday. 'Imtiaz Sir had called me for Love Aaj Kal through e-mail. During the shoot, my birthday came along, and they ordered a cake on set, and I was a background artist, so everyone celebrating my birthday was a big moment for me.'
After talking about her experiences as a background artist and her learnings from that time, Wamiqa admitted that everything stalled around 2019, and she felt that her skill as an actor was not growing anymore. She said, 'In 2019 I was doing a couple of films, and I wasn't enjoying myself or learning anything. I was also not in touch with my art back then. Because of that I wanted to quit the profession, and that's when I got offered '83. Although I wasn't open to small roles, I said yes because I thought it was a good chance to visit London, and to get some clarity regarding what I wanted to do.'
'83 was directed by Kabir Khan and the cast of the film included Ranveer, Deepika, Wamiqa, Hardy Sandhu, Ammy Virk, Saqib Saleem, Pankaj Tripathi and Tahir Raj Bhasin.
While Wamiqa did play a small role in the film, it pushed her back towards the industry. Since then she has played integral roles in several TV series, including Jubilee (2023) and Charlie Chopra and the Mystery of the Solang Valley (2023). Her film roles post '83 include Khufiya (2023), Tabaah (2024), Baby John (2024), and of course Bhool Chuk Maaf (2025).