Shruti Haasan talks about how her life changed from Mercedes to local train: My upbringing gave me the strength...

Shruti Haasan has revealed that she faced tough times during her childhood, especially after her parents’ separation (legendary actors Kamal Haasan and Sarika).

Shruti Haasan reflects on her formative years and how they shaped her perspective, especially when others quickly label her as ‘privileged’ in an industry where such assumptions are common. In an interview with Filmfare, she shared, “My upbringing gave me the strength and the courage to just be myself.”

The fact that she was born into a family of film stars never made Shruti haughty. Instead, her parents’ divorce and its fallout grounded her early in life. Reflecting onthat time, she said, “Many people don’t know what I went through when I came into the industry. Life had humbled me with my parents’ divorce. It’s not like we were set in a big mansion. When my mother wanted to part ways, we moved from Chennai to Mumbai. It wasn't comfortable. I’m proud of the lessons I learned, because I learned how quickly in life you can go from a Mercedes to a local train. Doing this is possible, but it is an experience from which you would learn and feel anguish and keep going.”

She also discussed how those experiences inspired her work in the industry. By the time she had arrived in films, Veena had re-established contact with her estranged father and had taken music classes in a foreign country. But she had to be independent; she was ambitious. “I always had this yearning to have my independence, to earn my own money, to have my own place,” she said. "I was a little attitude-y, but looking back, it wasn't the sort of, Oh, I'm better. It had been about fear, about feeling smaller than, and faking it.