[100 Emerging Women Leaders] Casting director Panchami Ghavri on building an early career

“I am the most annoying person to watch a movie with,” says Bollywood casting director Panchami Ghavri. 

“My husband says that he doesn’t want to watch anything with me because I keep pausing and taking pictures of actors, or making notes to reach out to them later. I am always thinking about finding the right face and the right talent to give them the opportunity to work in better and bigger films and shows,” she adds.

Ghavri has loved Bollywood movies since childhood. So much that she quit college in her second year to join her first job as a casting director for the Bollywood film Wake Up Sid. 

“At the time when I started, casting director was a fairly new career path and I never planned to do it. Casting needs interaction with a lot of people and I feel like my social and friendly nature helped me reach out to people really easily,” she says.

Ghavri has been the mind behind getting the right cast for some of the Bollywood hits like Uri, Kapoor&Sons, Brothers, Gehraiyaan, and Netflix drama series Masaba Masaba. 

She is of the opinion that as times change, people start focusing on building their career at an earlier stage. 

“The Gen Z is quite enterprising and so it is a natural phenomenon for them to start their career early,” she says.

While being young and extremely extroverted has helped her push her career growth, she is not immune to judgements and biases as a woman born in India.

“When I meet these uncles and aunties who don’t even probably like what we as women do in our lives, I try to understand their perspective. It’s mainly because they are brought up in a certain way and it was a very different time when they were growing up. But I feel that at the workplace, we have to make a choice of what kind of people we want to collaborate with. I work with a super progressive team, thankfully, who give me the space for creativity and some room to breathe,” explains Ghavri.

As someone who dropped out of college, she advises women leaders to continue with their education while building their careers. But for herself, she has no regrets about starting early.

She is confident that casting is not the only thing she has mastered. 

“I want to do so much more than casting. I definitely want to open a cocktail bar at some point. I also want to do something with food. I have so many dreams and I'm gonna achieve all of them,” she concludes.