Dino Morea says he did ‘small jobs to stay relevant’ when acting offers dried up: ‘I don’t want to talk about it’

Actor Dino Morea has spoken about making the decision to take a step back from acting because he wasn’t getting the work he wanted. Dino appeared in Amazon Prime Video’s Tandav earlier this year, and was most recently seen in the Disney+ Hotstar series The Empire.

He made his acting debut in 1999, but in 2010, decided to step away because ‘the roles coming (his) way were terrible and (he) would have dug (his) grave had (he) continued’. During that time, he said in a new interview, he did ‘small jobs to stay relevant’.

“Despite acting in 15 films, I had never been to an acting school. So I got myself enrolled in an acting school in Delhi. It was a beginning to unlearn and learn new things. From 2013, I started pushing myself again by approaching producers and directors, but nothing great came my way. I held back and waited for the right opportunity. Mental Hood in 2017 followed by Hostages and Tandav was a warm up to The Empire,” he told Pinkvilla.

Having no worthwhile acting gigs was difficult, he admitted. He said, “I was knocking the doors saying that I want to work, but nothing really came my way. But it’s all a journey. Yes, the time was tough and mentally, I did go through a lot. But exercise, fitness, and being healthy helped me a lot. I was trying to be relevant by doing small jobs to be finally secure, but don’t want to talk about it. But nothing is impossible. Work hard and the world will open up for you.”

Also read: The Empire review: Horrendous Hotstar show rips off Game of Thrones, apes Sanjay Leela Bhansali

In The Empire, based on the historical fiction novels set in the Mughal era by Alex Rutherford, Dino plays Mohammad Shaybani Khan, the primary adversary of Babur, played by Kunal Kapoor. The show is created by Nikkhil Advani and directed by Mitakshara Kumar.