Rupali Ganguly feels like a failure because she can’t be there with son

She says she had no ambitions and was one of them who just ‘flowed by’. But Rupali Ganguly’s life in the past three years has been anything but that. She returned to acting and her show topped the charts, but the pandemic made things difficult.

Revealing what all happened, she says, “My biggest ambition in life was to get married and have a family. When my son was born in 2015, I didn’t want anything else, and just wanted to focus on him, and enjoy every millisecond of motherhood. I started late as a mother, so those moments were very precious for me. When his school started, I never thought there would be a pandemic and lockdown.”

The 44-year-old was offered a daily soap then, and she took up the offer, thinking she will have time on hand since her son would go to school. But things turned out differently. “He would go to school at 12 and come back at seven. I thought it is the right time to begin working, not realising Covid ka lockdown ho jaayega. When a show was offered to me, my husband (Ashwin, businessman) said it’s high time I got my due as an actor. He has been managing everything since, single handedly. I am never there, unfortunately. I feel like a failure, but my husband does so much, it’s incredible.”

Ganguly is at shoot all day, considering she is the lead, so she cannot afford to even be apprehensive about venturing out in this uncertainty. “He is a hands on father who is playing the mother’s role beautifully. I am blessed to have a man like that in my life who supports a woman so much. He doesn’t need to send his wife out for work, but he takes the onus for her to go out there and make a mark for herself. I couldn’t have asked for a better husband and role model for my son, too,” gushes the actor.

Admitting that it is ‘difficult’ to be the face of a daily soap any way, leave alone amid a pandemic, the actor says she still shoots 12 hours a day. “I am there all the time, perpetually. There is a standing joke ki set ka gate main kholti hoon aur main hi band karti hoon. You kind of sacrifice your family time, health, sleep, a lot of things to follow a dream which perhaps your father and husband had seen for you. It does get extremely difficult at times,” she ends.