Hailing from Kanpur, Ambuj Dixit belongs to a family of doctors, engineers and civil servants, but he had a different career path set out for him. He shares, “After my schooling in Kanpur, I went to study at Amity University Noida for my BBA where only after a few months of my first semester I realized I have picked the wrong course for me, but I continued it and somehow graduated with a first-class degree.”
“After my graduation I wanted to take a break for a year, but one day my dad asked me what I plan to do after my graduation and he asked me to enquire about this film school called Whistling Woods. I guess my father had figured out on his own that my passion lied in films. He checked the institute himself and told me that if I wanted to make a career in acting I have to study here and train professionally,” he adds.
While acting was always on his mind, he wanted to first explore going behind-the-camera, and was always on the lookout for such opportunities, and when it finally knocked, he grabbed it with both hands.
“I assisted a few of my seniors with their film projects and I also worked as an intern on Subhash Ghai’s ‘Love Express’ during my semester break. After completing my course in Whistling Woods, I made my acting debut with ‘Student Of The Year’ (SOTY). And a few years later, a friend told me that Dharma Productions was looking for assistants for their upcoming projects, and since I had already done SOTY with them I was able to get an interview. Then after six months, I got a message from the associate director of ‘Kalank’ asking if I would be interested in joining the project and I instantly said yes,” he says.
“Assisting on ‘Kalank’ was a superb experience, I used to give clap and did stand in for Varun Dhawan. It was an experience I will always cherish. After ‘Kalank’ I ended up assisting in other projects which included directors like Arun Gopalan, Santosh Sivan, and Hardik Mehta. I even assisted in a show called ‘Spicy Pitch’ which was made by the Times group channel Cricbuzz,” Ambuj adds.
The young actor then spoke about his acting debut with SOTY, and revealed that many advised him to not take up the offer.
“It was a very small part in the film. Initially, I was very hesitant in doing it as whoever I told about it they asked me to not do it. But my mind was very clear that I'm an actor and the journey has to start from somewhere, this work has come to me when I was not even looking for it, and I should respect the fact and never reject an opportunity that comes on its own. I was showcased among Varun Dhawan’s friends,” he says.
“Meanwhile, I was already doing commercials for brands like Axe, Hike Messenger, VIP, Skybags, Park Avenue, etc. Later, while I was doing ‘Kalank’ as an AD my first OTT show called ‘Damaged’ (season 1) came which streamed on Sony Liv and MX Player. I also played a lead in a mini-series called ‘Love Crisis’,” he adds.
So, was it always a dream to become an actor? “Yes, since my school days I have loved performing arts. Moreover, my father used to travel abroad a lot and he used to get a lot of VHS from there. My first introduction to the world of movies was ‘Back to the Future’. I just fell in love with it and still have a poster of it in my house in Mumbai,” he says.
“I used to do plays in school and always had this fascination to watch and make movies. When I was growing up YouTube was not there so I always used to buy DVDs and later Blu-ray to have the access to the extra features in it where actors talked in detail about how they prepared for their particular characters. It always intrigued me,” Ambuj concludes.
