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Mumbai: Long before the television screens and big stages, anchor and actor Dinesh Soni was hosting small weddings and events for a mere Rs. 500 to Rs. 700 per show. He looked back at those early days and the difficult decision that followed, one that meant walking away from a secure accounting job to chase a dream nobody around him quite understood at the time.
He said, “At that time, I started my anchoring journey for just Rs. 500 to Rs. 700 per show. Looking back, that amount may seem insignificant today, but those days were incredibly valuable to me. What I remember most is that anchoring was never about the money, it was about the passion and the opportunity to learn. I was simply hungry for a chance to perform, and every opportunity meant learning something new.”
That hunger to learn showed up in the small habits he built long before he ever got his own stage. He said, “Whenever my senior anchors were performing, I would find a way to be there and watch their shows. I would carefully note down every item that was going to be performed and prepare what I could say before each segment. I would actually write my lines down and then practise them repeatedly until I was comfortable delivering them.”
Looking back, he believes those early years taught him lessons that no paycheque ever could. He said, “That process taught me something far more valuable than money, it taught me preparation, observation, discipline and the importance of learning from those who were ahead of me. So, while ₹500 to ₹700 may have very little monetary value today, at that stage of my journey, it meant a lot.”
“It gave me motivation, confidence and, most importantly, the drive to keep working with greater passion and dedication. Those small beginnings, fuelled by sheer passion and determination, eventually became the foundation of my journey as an anchor,” he added. The turning point, however, came when he was forced to choose between his day job and his shows. He said, “One day, I was absent from office because I had a show. The next morning, my senior confronted me and said, ‘Dinesh, you need to decide, do you want to do the job or the shows?’ Without thinking twice, I said, ‘I want to do the shows.’ He wasn’t expecting that answer. He told me another boss would come and settle my accounts, but the moment I stepped out, I thought, ‘This is my chance. If I wait, they may convince me to stay.’ I handed over my responsibilities to my junior and walked out. I never went back.”
Telling his family, though, turned out to be far harder than quitting the job itself. He said, “The job had come through my father’s references, so for a while, I continued leaving home and returning at office timings, pretending I was still working. Eventually, I told them I had quit. The obvious question was, ‘So, what will you do now?’ I said, ‘I will do anchoring and shows.’ They replied, ‘That’s fine, but what will you do for a living?’ It took time for my family to understand that anchoring was not a hobby for me, it was my profession.”
“But when they eventually saw me performing on television and at major events, they realised that what I had chosen was not just a passion, it was my career. That day, I didn’t know where anchoring would take me. I only knew that I had to give myself a chance,” Dinesh ended.
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