Akshay Oberoi is now hailed as OTT's Akshay Kumar by many. But his journey to success wasn't easy at all. After making his debut in 2010 in Isi Life Mein, Akshay had a rather rocky start to his acting career. As things picked up gradually, he gave a critically acclaimed performance in 2017's Gurgaon. Now, after completing 11 years in the entertainment industry, Akshay looks back at the toughest phase of his career. In PeepingMoon's latest series, Let's Talk, Akshay opened up about dealing with anxiety, frustration and insecurity during his struggling period. However, people's confidence in him helped him sail through the storm. 

He told us, "It was a very tough time. There was anxiety, frustration, insecurity etc. My wife always tells me that your biggest flaw and strength is that you are relentless. I never give up on anything. That's what carried me through. There were people, like media, critics, who liked my work and that gave me confidence. People showed confidence in me that I'm just a film away to reach that level. I kept hearing that and it gave me confidence. It gave me the ability to go back to knocking on the doors of production houses and saying, 'I'm that guy who gave a nice performance in films like Gurgaon, please cast me.' I have always done this. Finally, I feel I am in a different phase of my career. Now, it is a bit easier to deal with. That was a very painful time."

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He continued, "To some degree, agar voh nahi hota then I would have deviated off this path. Agar meri films chal jaati, today I wouldn't have spoken about focusing on my craft and what really matters to me. Main yeh sab bhul jata. A human mind runs around like a mouse, you are constantly chasing things. There is a pro and con to everything."

Akshay further added, "A lot of that pain, I use in my work now. We are actors, the more we live life, the more nuanced our performances are." He said that he has always been trying to prove himself. "We have to prove ourselves. I had done some 2-3 films around 6-7 years ago but they were so unheard of and not many people had watched them. They didn't work at the box office. I used to go to casting directors and tell them the films I have done. They weren't even aware of it," Akshay shared. 

Watch the interview here: