Day one of Goafest concluded with a panel featuring the star case of the film 12th Fail - Medha Shankr and Vikrant Massey discuss how one can embrace failure to touch success. The panel was moderated by actor, producer and entrepreneur, Neha Dhupia.  

The actors shared their experiences and insights on adaptability in the entertainment industry, while emphasising the importance of embracing both failure and success as the key to longevity in the industry.

On the biggest lesson of adaptability, Massey said the answer lay in the tagline ‘embracing failure to touch success’ itself.

He reflected on his 21 years in the industry, citing his experiences from his journey in television to movies. He underlined the invaluable lesson that success cannot happen without acknowledging failure, and that adapting to newer mediums and technologies is crucial for success in the long run.

“If I look back in hindsight, individually I have had to adapt from time to time”, he said, noting how media that were ‘up and coming’ ten years back are ‘redundant’ today.

Highlighting how failure precedes success throughout life, the actor said, “I also very strongly believe that success cannot be defined as a standalone concept without failure. And ironically, out of 365 days in a year, you're actually off the mark 300 days. People just see those 65 days but it is your gumption to get up day after day, wanting to better yourself in whatever field of work you're in that defines success.”

On her part, Shankr who relocated to Mumbai several years ago, shared her disappointments with auditions and rejections in the initial five to six years of her career before ‘12th Fail’ happened, “It wasn’t easy at all. I don't like to use the word ‘failure’, I usually swap it with the euphemism ‘setback’, whether it's rejection in an audition- which has been the case for so many years, I've always seen it as a stumbling block and used it as a stepping stone. And that's how you adapt.”

On the process of getting into the skin of the character - the main protagonist of the story - Manoj Kumar Sharma, on whose life the movie is based, Massey shared that he discovered they had pretty similar values in life when he got a chance to interact with him during the making of the film.

Underlining how the movie resonates with the majority, the actor said, “That is the reason why we came up with the tagline, ‘Based on a true story, inspired by a million true stories’. Because this is such a deeply rooted Indian film, it’s a universal story.”

Agreeing with her co-star, Shankr discussed the first time she met ‘Shraddha ma’m’, the character on whom her role was based in the movie. “We come from very similar backgrounds. Like me, she also comes from a very middle class normal family with a very highly ‘educationally inclined’ family. So our value systems are very similar. Our ideas of love and life are very similar, so I could relate to her,” she said.

Notwithstanding speculations on how the film will be received, both actors spoke about remaining dedicated to its authentic storytelling, united by a commitment to the director's vision, prioritising it over commercial success. 

“Working with Vidhu Vinod Chopra I was so fortunate that we never made the film for it to be a successful film. We just  made it with all integrity and sincerity, and with the right intent,” stated Massey.

Despite naysayers who expressed reservations on having a ‘non-commercial’ actor as main lead, the director Chopra went ahead with his vision, which was empowering, said Massey.

“We had to be as honest as we can with this story. This was a story of millions of Indians, and we were always confident that we made a good film. But will it be a conventionally successful film, we didn't know.”

The host Dhupia wondered on whether sometimes somewhere down the line even success can become little bit of a burden as to ‘what next’ in terms of the work. To this Massey responded with, “You have to take things at face value, that is how it has always been and this is how it will always be. Some things never change, the nature of life”.

“If I’m a brand, my operations don’t change. My outlook is the same, only the bandwidth has increased. Hopefully better scripts will come my way,” he added.

On being ready for the change that comes with sudden success, Shankr highlighted the tagline of the film,’Zero se kar #Restart’. “I’m very new still. There is still so much more that I have to learn. And that's what I figured every single day. So I've not taken any sort of pressure on myself that this film has done really well.  I'm still hoping and praying to be working with incredible directors and filmmakers and actors. So nothing really has changed in that way.”

Giving a shoutout to Priyanka Chopra as an aspirational role model on ‘adaptability’ who reinvented herself, Shankr said, “The way she has adapted herself in the business, going into a different country, a whole new business, to succeed in global cinema- that takes a lot of courage.”

While working towards a common goal, the duo discussed looking to collaborate with like minded individuals in future as well. 

Affirming how ‘Adaptability is key in the world of storytelling’, Massey said, “For example, when I was doing television, our priority was TRPs. And you had to act a certain way. The moment I came into cinemas, it was a different world altogether. So different models need different outputs.”