Montreal-raised Megha Sandhu is best known for her CBC – TV Series “Pretty Hard Cases” and “Arranged Marriage”, a dark satire about a South Asian girl ambushed by her parents with an arranged marriage.
The actress, who has also worked on the television series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Hudson & Rex, and Painkiller.
Spoke to Elixuer about how she first caught the performance bug and the value of South Asian representation.
Did you always know you wanted to be an actress?
Ever since I was a child, acting was always something I wanted to be involved in. Whenever my grandma would visit us from India, I would perform for her non-stop. I felt a need to express myself artistically.
Before I knew it, I was in high school, joining the drama club. We performed “To Kill a Mockingbird” and I played the role of Atticus Finch.
This was the first time I thought about how much joy acting brought me. But I grew up in a South Asian household where education was — and still is — of paramount importance.
I was told to go to medical school and become a doctor. My parents wanted me to follow in my mother’s footsteps. It was a constant battle between trying to fit the mold of the person my parents thought I was to become, and the person that I actually wanted to become. Ironically, this situation was very similar to my character Kami’s story in “Arranged Marriage”.
After being pressured to complete a bachelor’s degree in behavioral neuroscience, I finally told my parents that I was going to pursue acting full-time.
What drew you to this specific project, “Arranged Marriage”?
Thankfully, now more South Asian stories are being told, but at the time, I hadn’t read a script like it before. South Asians were always somehow painted as the “evil people” in some sort of cautionary tale, or they were simply a feel-good ethnic. After speaking with my director, Anoop Rangi, I began to understand that this script was neither of those genres.
It’s his unique perception. It was the first script showcasing South Asians in a way that felt so authentic, yet comedic.
While I’ve never been through an arranged marriage myself, I know a lot of South Asian women who have. And in a lot of ways, I related to Kami’s character.
Although my struggle wasn’t relationship-focused, I still had to decide whether to respect and trust my parent’s vision for me by taking the medical school route, or taking control of my future and following my dreams.
There were a lot of parallels I drew from Kami’s character and my own life because both were heavily influenced by South Asian culture and our parents.
What was the experience like starring in your first movie?
It was a blast! When an actor begins their journey, there is less pressure to please the press, media, and other agents. You just show up as yourself.
It was such a blessing to work on a film like this, with such great people, and tell a South Asian story from such a unique perspective.
For me, it was loads of fun. I never once thought about, “Oh, how are people going to perceive this?” I was so invested in Kami’s character and her journey.
Does your bachelor’s degree in behavioral neuroscience inform your acting process?
Yes and no. I would never say that I just walked into this field like it’s easy. This field deserves respect for the commitment and hard work that actors and artists put into it. But I will say that my academic background – being as rigorous as it was – helped prepare me for the amount of work that acting requires. People have this perception that acting is easy and very glamorous, but that’s not the case. I also think that my degree in studying human behavior allowed me to understand other human beings and question motives. I think the best actors can do that well. I’m still learning about myself, constantly, and about the world around me, but yes, I think it ultimately did help.
What are you looking forward to next in your career?
Working and putting in as much of my time that I can into roles that I get. This industry is very unpredictable at times. I’m quite fortunate in that sense to be working right now.
I’m looking to continue to expand my art, continue to learn, and also to meet new people on the different projects I have in the works. I can’t say what they are, but it’s an exciting time, especially for South Asian artists, because we’re finally getting to represent our stories on TV and film. That’s what I’m most excited for: to tell our stories in the most authentic way possible, and to be a role model for other brown women because growing up, I did not have that, and I know how important it is.
The Elixuer Team | Staff Writer
