Shreya Dhanwanthary, who recently marked the release of her new film Chup: Revenge of The Artist, has said she went through a long period of struggle before she found her footing in the entertainment industry. She recently shared that she faced several financial struggles and was even on the brink of homelessness during this time. Shreya moved to the Middle East with her parents when she was just a few months old and spent her life in Dubai, Bahrain, and Qatar before returning to India to pursue engineering. However, she always wanted to be an actor and decided to focus on making a career in the entertainment industry. She told Curly Tales, “It was ridiculously difficult. Wanting to be in films was a part of me that I kept secret from my other secrets because I thought it was so ridiculous and unachievable for someone like me. I can’t quite believe that I am here.” She added that she still doesn’t feel she has made it. As her Chup co-star Dulquer said, “But you didn’t take that long,” Shreya clarified, “You had a 10-year career. I took 10 years to make my first film.” She then added that she was ‘Trying to make my first film’ during that time. She added, “Don’t ask me how I did it. I don’t know how I did it. I don’t know how I stayed here, how I continued staying here…not having the money, to almost being homeless, to stay hungry for a long time. I don’t know how I did it, some sort of psychosis for sure.” Shreya participated in Femina Miss India South 2008 when she was pursuing engineering, and went on to compete in Miss India 2008, where she was a finalist. She appeared in Telugu films Josh in 2009 and Sneha Geetham in 2010. She made her Bollywood debut 10 years later with Emraan Hashmi-starrer Why Cheat India, and gained more recognition with her work in the Prime Video series The Family Man and SonyLIV series Scam 1992 later that year. Looop Lapeta (2022) among other projects.