The bubbly girl from ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ is still a bundle of joy and happiness. Sana Saeed, who started her career as a child artist in 1998, says she absolutely loved her school.
Sana attended Convent of Jesus and Mary in Mumbai and still remembers her school days fondly. “I was super naughty in school. But I absolutely loved school and my school friends. All I wanted to do all day was to spend time with them. My most favourite part about school was preparing for the extra-curricular activities, such as school dramatics, stage performances on various festivals and so on.”
The Student of the Year star admits that her school and college life gave her the best memories and friends. “I had, and still have, a girl gang of 12-14 friends, which was my school group back then and even today we have a WhatsApp group. So yes, that’s kind of amazing!”
Campus
Sana graduated in commerce and did a diploma and advance diploma in marketing and advertising from H.R. College, Mumbai. While talking about the carefree life she lived at that time, she laughs and says “I did tons of inter-college dramatics, ate tons of chocolate without worrying about my health and weight, and made so many new friends. What a wonderful carefree life!”
“School and college kind of keep you in the moment, I think when you don’t really know what’s next, we really learn to live each day completely.”
If there is one thing that always brings a smile to Sana’s face, it is her memories with her friends. “School and college gave me my best relationships. The friends you make in your younger years are friends to keep .”
Even though she participated in a lot of inter-college dramatics programmes, becoming an actor wasn’t something she decided until she was 22. However, contrary to the belief that her experience of being a child artist would have saved her the trouble, Sana did her research and waited for her hard work to pay off. “It was like it was for everybody else then. I too ran the usual errands, did my research, contacted people, sent my portfolio and resume around and then the usual rounds of auditions.”
Entering the movies and making a name for yourself is not easy. However, what gives her strength are the words of her lecturer from school. “We had this lecturer come in before our final school board exams and she gave us this affirmation to say every time we were stressed or didn’t feel motivated enough. It goes like “I CAN, I WILL, I MUST! I use this affirmation till date.
Sana went from obtaining a degree in marketing and advertising to becoming an actor. “You just got to do what you love, whatever profession suits your skill set and talents the most. One of my closest friends loves being a doctor to her very core. So yes, I think it all boils down to who you want to be, and then just go be you!”
Sana believes in hard work and doing what you love. For the youngsters and budding actors, she says, “I think most of us just look at others and decide what looks good on them, might be good for us too. The most important thing is to first understand yourself, what you really love doing, what makes you happy, what is that you could do for the rest of your life and it wouldn’t feel like “work” and then when you have that answer, just listen to yourself, trust your gut instincts to guide you and go do it.”
