Parul Gulati is an actor and entrepreneur by profession, and she credits it all to social media. “I call myself social media ki den, be it my acting career or business. I got selected for my first acting gig through Facebook at the age of 17, and my whole business is on social media,” she says, adding that the virtual world has helped in the growth of her hair care business and get recognition for her work.
However, she does insist that the “addiction of social media is real”. “I am facing the addiction now as earlier, the algorithm didn’t know what you wanted to watch, now it does. Algorithm aapki neend chura raha hai. I open my Instagram and do mindless scrolling for hours and it’s out of my control,” she says, pointing out that as an entrepreneur, she can’t even stay away from it: “The young audience is there on social media and it’s imperative we get their attention. You get to know so much through social media, including new promotional techniques. It gives me ideas too.”
Ask the 29-year-old how she manages acting with her business at such a young age, and she says, “It does get difficult and there are days when I want to pull my own hair as I love both of them a lot. I don’t have a personal life because you must sacrifice something.”
Gulati recently faced backlash on social media when a video of her talking about purchasing an investment property in Goa surfaced. She had said that she plans to put it up as an Air bnb, and that was criticised by Goans who called her out for commercialising the state. Mention it to her and she says, “Main to bol rahi hun, puri duniya to kar rahi hai. And I haven’t even done it yet, my property will be complete by December. That is a business and Goa has become a business. I have taken that property as an investment as I don’t see myself living in Goa ever. But it was the only place I could buy a villa as doing that in Mumbai is impossible. You’d have to spend 100 crores to buy a villa here,” she ends.
