Photo by Giovanni Rufino/USA Network
On the USA Network series Royal Pains Reshma Shetty’s character
has to lie to her parents about being a Physician’s Assistant. Despite the fact
that she had dreamed of a medical career since the age of six, her conservative
Indian folks insisted that she earn an M.B.A. so that she could work with her
fiancée-to-be in an arranged marriage.
In a strange twist of fate, Shetty
herself had planned on studying medicine before destiny intervened. In a recent
conference call interview she revealed, “I did want to be a doctor all through
my high school years. Science club president and all of that and went to school
for pre-med.”
But she also had an interest in the
arts. “I’ve always been playing musical instruments from a very young age. From
about seven, I started piano. When I was in high school, I found out I could
sing. I preferred to be on a stage than to be in the orchestra pit. Because I
played violin at the time, so I was usually in violin, first violin. So you
just get that burst onstage.”
Still she never intended to make
singing a career and was only doing theater for fun while in college. She divulged,
“When I went to college, I just decided to keep it up as a hobby. I got into
the musicals and the operas. Then I won a vocal competition while I was a bio
major, which kind of stunned most of the people. It was a state competition. They
didn’t know where this kid was from. Here was this bio major, and she’s beaten
out all the music majors … attention.”
Luckily for Royal Pains fans, some people close to Shetty encouraged her to
pursue opera. “I just had mentors come into my life who pushed me in this
direction… I wish that I’d gone into straight drama earlier in many ways. But I
always had the fear that because of typecasting, opera they don’t look at your
color… If you can sing, you can sing. You can play anything. There weren’t as
many opportunities at that time. So I kind of felt that it was a better route
to take. And I could hit really high notes. And, I was an attractive,
non-overweight opera singer. And it gave me a lot of confidence in that area.”
But when she arrived in Manhattan to
pursue her dreams, her focus shifted to the theater. “When I moved to New York,
I didn’t do any opera… I got a commercial agent before I came, started to do
commercials. Then I did a musical, two musicals and then did a play.”
One of those gigs was in the touring
company of the musical Bombay Dreams
. She recounted how she was cast in the
show. “When I got to New York the first thing I heard of was that they were
doing the auditions for the national tour of Bombay Dreams. I jumped on the
audition and… thankfully I got the lead girl in it. I got to experience the
musical. And, I got to travel the country doing it. It was very fun… And it was
great to bring a bit of Bollywood… to the Mid-west.”
. She recounted how she was cast in the
show. “When I got to New York the first thing I heard of was that they were
doing the auditions for the national tour of Bombay Dreams. I jumped on the
audition and… thankfully I got the lead girl in it. I got to experience the
musical. And, I got to travel the country doing it. It was very fun… And it was
great to bring a bit of Bollywood… to the Mid-west.”
Shetty’s big break on television
came soon after. She noted, “Then I got Royal
Pains. So drama’s always been there from the beginning… It wasn’t in the
forefront.”
Unlike her Royal Pains character, her family was cautious of her career shift
but supportive nonetheless. She explained, “My parents are traditional. They
are from a line of doctors. So that’s all they knew. And they were scared. I
mean they wanted to support me. But it wasn’t the easiest to sell. ‘Hey, Mummy,
I really want to be an actress.’ It was a bit difficult. But, as I said, they
were really great with it. Obviously, now they’re happy about it all. But
still… being a doctor… it’s a job, too, that people look up to. And it’s
respectable in their eyes. So it was a hard sell.”
Clearly Shetty’s doing a respectable
job in the entertainment field. But what’s next for her? She remarked, “I would
love to do a meaningful movie. I would love to do a comedy… I think that to
have Royal Pains on is great. And I think that definitely Los Angeles next year
is going to be a place that I will go to and spend a bit more time than this
year. This year I have stayed in New York because I’m getting married. So it
was not a time for me to actually go the West Coast… And I hope at some point,
[to return to the] stage. It has to be something very special to me. But I
definitely do miss the stage.”
Until then catch Shetty when Royal Pains airs on Thursdays at 9 p.m.
EST/8 p.m. Central on USA.
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