Delhi girl Gunjan Saini, who was part of the ‘Gutar Gu’ series on Amazon Mini TV is creating all the right buzz in Mumbai currently with her incredible talent in writing. Gunjan was raised in Delhi. Her father was a government employee so she had to change schools a lot. She decided to start her career as a nurse and also started preparing for that.
She says, “For my graduation, I took the All India Nursing Exam of AIIMS and got into AIIMS Bhopal and went there for my graduation. Due to peer pressure, I took science in 11th and 12th grades. After that, I was very confused about what I should do, although my father helped me a lot with options. I had a neighbor who was a nurse at AIIMS, and she was earning well. Seeing her, I wanted to pursue nursing, which became my main goal. However, during my journey, I realized that nurses in India are not highly respected. Once, when we were disrespected, the authorities told her that as a nurse, she should learn to accept things, which hurt me a lot as it affected my self-esteem. In my second year of nursing, I wanted to leave and pursue physiotherapy, but my father advised me to finish the course and later explore options during my master’s. In my third year, I thought a lot about life and realized that I enjoyed dancing and acting in school. So I decided to choose this as a profession. I told my father I wanted to go to Mumbai to study mass communication. He suggested Pune, but admissions were closed there. So I came to Mumbai in 2018 to pursue my masters in mass communication from Hinduja College.”
Gunjan’s short videos on her social media have got a lot of appreciation from her followers. She says,“I have been writing since my school days, but I gave my first performance in Bhopal at my college. I performed at an open mic on a social issue, and when I finished the poetry, many people were crying, which motivated me. I remember my roommate asking if I wanted to pursue this hobby professionally, but at that time, I didn’t see many people making a living as full-time poets, so I was unsure. When I came to Mumbai, I got opportunities for writing and stage performances, so writing became my first priority, and acting became secondary.”
Gunjan, who is multi-talented with skills in writing poetry and lyrics, considers herself an artist first. She adds, “I call myself an artist. I am a poet and writer, as I sometimes write ads. I have written one song and want to write more. Writing songs is like writing poetry for me. I am not a copywriter, as I haven’t written regular ads.”
Gunjan shares her current career focus. She says, “My focus is now on building my social media presence and doing more live shows. I am in touch with a few musicians and am writing songs with them. My goal is to improve my content creation and achieve significant milestones.” When asked about her mentor, Gunjan shares an honest opinion, “Whether it’s writing or acting, I haven’t had a mentor. I find motivation on my own. I usually watch videos when I feel down and become my own mentor. Of course, different people have guided me at different phases. When I started poetry, a few full-time poets gave me hope, and they became friends. Poets like Amandeep Singh, whose videos I watched in the hostel, have helped me a lot in my journey.”
