Tanya Maniktala, known for playing Lata Mehra in A Suitable Boy, recalled an incident from her school days where she was caught by her mother while making a surreptitious call to a boy. She said that her elder brother later warned the boy to stay away from her.
Speaking with Humans of Bombay, Tanya Maniktala said that boys would ‘avoid’ her because of her elder brother but one boy saw her at a birthday party and wanted to speak with her. “He took my number; we had a landline back then. But I couldn’t have a guy calling me up; if my parents found out, I’d be gone! So when he called, I took the phone to my bathroom & called him back,” she said.
However, Tanya’s mother figured out about her secret call to the boy. “My mom knew something fishy was happening; she knocked on the door and said, ‘Who are you talking to?’ I replied, ‘Nobody!’ When I came out and told her about the guy, she said, ‘Papa ko batau kya (Should I tell your father)’?”
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Tanya said that her romance came to a premature end, courtesy her elder brother, and she then kept her distance from boys as she wanted to stay out of trouble. “The next day, my older brother tells this guy, ‘Tanya se door rehna (Stay away from Tanya)!’ And that was the end of my love story! After that, I stayed away from boys–I didn’t want to get into any more trouble!” she said.
Last year, Tanya was seen in Mira Nair’s miniseries A Suitable Boy, which also starred Ishaan Khatter, Tabu and Ram Kapoor, among others. She will be seen next in the Netflix anthology Feels Like Ishq. She is also set to make her feature film debut with Santosh Sivan’s Mumbaikar.