Jay Upadhyay

Some Lesser Known Facts About Jay Upadhyay

• Does Jay Upadhyay smoke?: Yes 

• Does Jay Upadhyay drink alcohol?: Yes 

• Jay Upadhyay is an Indian actor who shot to fame after his commendable performance in SonyLIV’s hit web series Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, directed by Hansal Mehta in 2020. Jay’s role of Pranav Sheth was loosely based on Ketan Parekh, a former stocks broker from Mumbai, who was convicted in 2008 for stock market manipulation that occurred in 1998. 

• Jay was into acting since his school days. He did his first one-act play in 8th standard and it was only then that he first realized his love for the stage. He continued working in theatre throughout his college days.

• Jay considers Manoj Shah to be his idol. Shah is a famous theatre director, actor, and producer who owns the production company Ideas Unlimited. Jay is a part of his theatre group and has acted in many popular plays, one of them being ‘Mareez,’ based on the life of poet Mareez. Mareez is a biographical drama and has been playing at Prithvi Theatre since 2004.

• Jay has been seen in many regional and mainstream Hindi films. His debut Gujarati film ‘Kevi Rite Jaish’ is said to have started an era of urban films in Gujarat. His film ‘Tu Hai Mera Sunday’ was premiered at the BFI Southbank theatre during the London Film Festival in 2016. The film met with a really good response from the audience.

• Jay was cast by Mukesh Chhabra for the series Scam 1992. In an interview, when he was asked about his experience with director Hansal Mehta, he said,
  

  Hansal sir jane jate hai serious films ke liye, but he is a prankster and a bully in a funny way. Wo aap par itna acha joke marenge ki aapko hasna aayega. He is inherently a very funny guy who is known for his serious content, which is very ironic.”

• Jay is very good friends with his Scam 1992 co-star Pratik Gandhi and has done a lot of plays with him (mostly Gujarati plays).

  

• Jay has also appeared in small roles in the popular Indian television shows such as CID and Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah.

• Even though Jay has done many movies and TV shows, he still considers theatre as the love of his life. According to him, every new actor should do at least 5 years of theatre and even non-actors should do theatre as it helps to improve their personality.

  

• Jay predominantly works in Gujarati movies and plays.

  

• He considers himself lucky for being born in Mumbai. According to him, Mumbai is a melting pot where people of all cultures mix together, which is really good for an actor as he gets to experience a lot of cultural diversity.