COVID Fallout: Junior Odia Actor In Bollywood Now Sells Vegetables

Bhubaneswar: He used to live his dreams and eke out a living by doing two-bit roles as a junior artist in Bollywood but with the film industry completely closed due to the pandemic, Kartik Sahu of Kendrapada district has fallen on hard days.

He now sells vegetables to make ends meet. Kartik was a part of six Bollywood movies and one Hindi television serial. He shared screen space with superstars Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Ranveer Singh, Vishal Devgn, and John Abraham, the pioneer reported. He has been a part of ‘Prithviraj’, ‘Sooryavanshi’, ‘Shamshera’, ‘Jayeshbhai Jordaar’ and ‘Tanhaji’.

Kartik has left for Mumbai in 2004. He initially worked for an electrical appliances company at a monthly salary of Rs 1,200. Later, one of his friends helped him get a role in movies, reported the newspaper.

Shooting for ‘Prithviraj’ got postponed indefinitely, so he returned to his rented house near Canal Road in Rasulgarh area here.

Left with no choice, he decided to sell vegetables at Palasuni Market in Bhubaneswar. “I started this business with an initial investment of Rs 2,000 to meet the basic expenses. Though movie making has been badly affected, I am hopeful that normalcy will return following which I will go back to Mumbai,” he told the pioneer.