Disha Patani’s Journey: ₹500 in Mumbai to Awarapan 2 Release

Mumbai | 28 Aug 2026

Disha Patani, now appearing opposite Emraan Hashmi in the recently released Awarapan 2, built her film career after leaving engineering studies, moving to Mumbai with limited savings and facing repeated auditions and early rejection. Her breakthrough in Hindi cinema came with M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story in 2016, a decade before she joined the cast of the Awarapan sequel.

Disha Patani moved to Mumbai with ₹500

Patani has spoken publicly about the financial uncertainty of her early career. In a 2018 interview with Hindustan Times, she said she had left her studies and moved to Mumbai, where she lived independently and tried to support herself through modelling, commercials and auditions.

“I came to Mumbai with ₹500 and after a point, I didn’t have any money.”

— Disha Patani, actor

She said she regularly auditioned for television commercials and faced the practical pressure of securing enough work to pay her rent. Her account also makes clear that her entry into the film industry was not backed by an established film family.

Before moving fully into entertainment, Patani was studying engineering. She later said modelling assignments increasingly clashed with the attendance requirements of her college, eventually forcing her to choose between continuing her studies and pursuing modelling.

Disha Patani auditioned for Heropanti but did not get the role

One of Patani’s early auditions was for Heropanti, the 2014 Hindi debut of Tiger Shroff. The female lead eventually went to Kriti Sanon.

Patani later recalled during an interview with Bollywood Hungama that she was still studying at the time and had travelled for the audition without having established herself as an actor.

“I was horrible in the audition.”

— Disha Patani, actor

The available interview establishes that she auditioned for the film and did not secure the part. It does not support portraying the episode as her being removed from Heropanti after being formally cast.

A separate launch film also fell through

Patani has, however, confirmed that another project intended to launch her did not go ahead with her in the role. In her 2018 interview, she said she had been replaced by another actor before that film started.

She described rejection as an experience that pushed her to work harder rather than abandon acting. The title of that abandoned launch project was not identified in the interview, so linking it definitively to Heropanti would be inaccurate.

M.S. Dhoni film brought wider Hindi-cinema recognition

Patani made her acting debut in Telugu cinema with director Puri Jagannadh’s Loafer in 2015, opposite Varun Tej. Her first Hindi film release came the following year with Neeraj Pandey’s M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story.

In the biographical sports drama, starring Sushant Singh Rajput as former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Patani played Priyanka Jha. The film was released on 30 September 2016 and became the project that brought her substantially wider recognition among Hindi-film audiences.

Her subsequent credits included Kung Fu Yoga with Jackie Chan, Baaghi 2, Bharat, Malang, Ek Villain Returns, Yodha, Kalki 2898 AD and Kanguva.

Disha Patani stars as Zara in Awarapan 2

Patani’s latest theatrical appearance is Awarapan 2, released on 14 August 2026. Central Board of Film Certification records identify Emraan Hashmi and Disha Patani as the film’s main actors and list Nitin Kakkar as director, with Mukesh Bhatt and Vishesh Bhatt as producers.

The CBFC certified the Hindi film UA 16+ on 5 August with a running time of about 140 minutes. Patani plays Zara, while Hashmi reprises Shivam Pandit, the character he played in the 2007 film Awarapan.

The sequel follows Shivam years after the events of the original film as he is drawn back into a dangerous criminal world. Shabana Azmi and Shriya Saran are among the other credited cast members.

From modelling auditions to mainstream films

Patani has previously said acting was not originally her childhood career plan and that she had once wanted to become an Air Force pilot. Modelling opportunities during college gradually altered that path.

Her career therefore developed through a sequence of modelling assignments, commercial auditions, unsuccessful film opportunities and regional cinema before her Hindi-film breakthrough. The record also shows why two frequently repeated parts of her story require distinction: she did audition unsuccessfully for Heropanti, while the film in which she says she was formally replaced was a separate, unidentified launch project.