“Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans” There is more than a grain of truth in this eternal piece of wisdom. Life is full of surprises and stumbling on something at the least expected times can lead to success. Indian actor, Hetal Puniwala is one of them who has gone through this. His journey to become an actor is very interesting. His motto is to work hard and enjoy all work big or small.  He takes his work seriously and works tirelessly on his passion.

Early years and Education

He was born on 8th October in Surat, Gujarat. He went to V T Choksi English Medium School in Khatodara, Surat. Thereafter he completed his bachelors in chemistry from Arts, Science & Commerce COLLEGE in Khalwad in Surat. 

Hetal has a great faith in Shri Shri Ravishankar Maharaj and is his follower. He credits his success to Ravi Shankarji as he learnt some mind stable tricks, Pranayama and Meditations to remember long dialogues in minimum time.

His family supports him and makes sure that he is focused on his work without worrying about his family. 

His role model is Amitabh Bacchan and wishes to work with him if given a chance. 

The beginning of his journey

During his college days, he went with his friends to see a Guajarati play. However due to unavailability of one of the artists, the director requested Hetal to play as replacement on emergency level because play was about to start. Surprisingly, Hetal did it very well without any preparation. This started his acting career accidentally. He then got small roles in many plays and started to enjoy acting. 

He wanted to continue acting and chose this field as his career. He joined the Surat Theater group and did many plays in Theatre. Furthermore, he was doing drama and also prepared himself for the next level, so he can work in mediums like movies. As he gained experience by working in theater and plays on stage, he got to play lead roles. He became an established play artist and writers or directors created exclusive roles and scripts only for him in Gujarati plays. 

But he had his family textile business to run along with his acting career. As it was getting hectic to manage both things, he decided to quit acting for some time. However, some of his well-wishers and colleague directors advised him to not quit the acting or take a break as it would get hard for him to come back. Inspired by the movie ‘3 idiots’ which was released then, he chose acting over running family business and followed his passion. After his father passed away, he sold the factory and started his own acting classes which got a good response. From 15 years to 60 years old members enrolled in his acting classes. He taught to more than 60 to 70 participants in his acting school in Surat.

Struggles and hindrances

He then decided to go to Mumbai and work in the Bollywood industry as his next move. In 2011 when he came to Mumbai, he did not know anyone. After some unsuccessful attempts and initial days of struggles, he started theater with Umesh Shukla who has made successful movies like’’ oh my god and ‘102 not out’. Mr. Kapil Dev Shukla recommended his name to Umesh Shukla when they needed an actor for lead role. However, this play could not continue, and he was advised to continue giving auditions for films, serials or ads. So he worked hard to give ads auditions, meet casting directors and follow up with them to get work. 

One particular casting director called him for an audition but later that cancelled it. Hetal continued to be cool and reply with his lovely smile even in such situations. However, due to his calm response, he was asked to give an audition, and he got selected for his first role. After that day he gave many auditions and got work in lots of projects with big names like Ekta kapoor, Yash Raj banner, Raj kumar hirani, umesh Shukla and many more. He has shared the screen with stars like Rishi kapoor, Hritik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor and Paresh Raval. He has acted in many TV commercials and also done many print shoots. He has done cameo roles in TV serials like ‘CID’, ’Savdhaan India’, ‘Tarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chasmah’, His Gujarati film ‘Wrong Side Raju’ has won a National Award.

In 2017, Hetal purchased his own house in Goregaon, Mumbai and shifted there with his family from Surat.

What’s in the future?

As the OTT platform has increased more opportunities for actors, he is hopeful to work as a lead actor in Bollywood movies in the future