Actor Sharvari has spoken about how her parents helped her take the first step towards an acting career, even before she felt confident enough to tell them what she wanted. In a recent conversation on The Unrushed Podcast, the actor recalled that she had wanted to act since childhood but had chosen to study civil engineering instead. Her parents eventually asked her directly whether she wanted to become an actor, giving her the confidence to acknowledge what she had been hesitant to say. “I didn’t have the guts to tell my parents that I wanted to be an actor,” Sharvari said. She recalled how, one day, her parents asked her to sit with them in the hall and asked, “Do you want to be an actor?” The question surprised her. “Really?” she recalled thinking, before adding that she reacted by saying yes.
How Sharvari’s parents helped her make the decision
5 Oct 2026 | 12:06
Parents, when your child refuses to greet relatives, do you make them say hello or respect their choice?
Sharvari with her parents.
Sharvari said her interest in acting was not new. As a child, she would often say that she wanted to become an actor. However, as she grew older, she chose a path that felt more familiar. “I think they always knew, you know, like I said, when I was a kid I used to always say I want to be an actor,” she said. She explained that she eventually chose a different direction, one that did not reflect her real interest. “I guess I chose a path that felt more easier or felt more, actually not easier, it felt more familiar and that’s the kind of path I chose.” Her parents, she said, understood that her interests lay elsewhere and that civil engineering was not what she truly wanted to pursue. Once Sharvari admitted that she wanted to act, her father responded with a practical question: should she switch to arts? “And that’s when I really, really had the guts to say yes,” she recalled.Her father’s next suggestion caught her off guard. He wanted her to change her course immediately. “I said, ‘What now?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, right now.’ I said, ‘Like right now, right now?’ He said, ‘Yeah, right now we go to your college and we just switch to arts,’” she said in the podcast. Sharvari remembered being surprised by how quickly her parents were ready to support the decision. But their support came with a clear message: she needed to commit to the career she wanted rather than try to pursue two different paths at once. “They said that you can’t keep your feet on, you know, two boats. It’s not going to happen,” she recalled.
Her parents wanted her to take acting seriously
Image courtesy: Instagram/@sharvari
Sharvari said her parents did not treat acting as a vague ambition that she could keep postponing while continuing with her existing studies. They encouraged her to understand what becoming an actor would require and to start preparing for it. “If you want to actually act and you want to be an actor, then go to acting school, learn how to dance, go, you know, be an assistant director, do these 100 things or whatever, whatever that you need to do,” she said.Her parents also made it clear that she needed to figure out the next steps herself. Continuing to study science while hoping to become an actor could leave her too occupied to pursue either direction properly. “But you need to figure it out because if you’re going to keep doing science, you’re just going to keep going to classes, you’re going to keep being busy, and you’re not going to do this and you’re not going to be here or there,” she said.
What parents can learn from Sharvari’s experience
Sometimes, a child may talk about a career interest for years without feeling ready to pursue it seriously. Parents may hear these ambitions as passing interests, while the child may be unsure how the family will react if they express a preference that differs from the path already chosen for them. Instead of immediately advising a child to continue with a familiar or conventional option, parents can ask whether it is what the child actually wants.A useful way to begin is to ask two separate questions: “What would you like to do?” and “What do you think you would need to learn to do it?” The first gives the child room to express an interest; the second turns that interest into a discussion about preparation, effort and realistic next steps.Parents can also help children test a career choice before making a major change. A child interested in acting, for example, could attend a workshop, learn basic performance skills, speak to someone working in the field or explore what acting school involves. These steps allow the family to discuss the commitment required without dismissing the ambition or treating it as an immediate guarantee of success.
