How one Toronto student found light in darkness on his way to TikTok stardom
By: Yanika Saluja
Dhruv Gogia’s single, middle-body shot (Sarah Boh Hasan/CanCulture)
You’ve probably read about celebrities or influencers who made it big and are now idolized by millions of young people world-wide. The stories you haven’t seen, are likely those of aspiring artists in the struggling phases of their lives, trying to step foot into the industry; something we know is no walk in the park.
Dhruv Gogia, 20, is a third-year media production student at Toronto Metropolitan University and is doing a minor in acting. Dhruv Gogia shared his story of overcoming barriers and personal growth, in an interview with CanCulture. While speaking with him, it became evident this story wasn't just his— it spoke to the struggles of racialized emerging artists all over the world.
With a bag full of talent and motivation, Gogia dreamed of being an actor since he was a kid. He started making TikTok videos in 2021 and was lucky enough to gain over a 100,000 followers overnight. After overcoming a recent creative slump, Gogia plans to release his own eight-episode TikTok series, with approval by TikTok Canada. This series will be inspired by Gogia’s personal life and is going to star people he’s close to.
“I am trying to put the real unfiltered version of me,” said Gogia. “This series is inspired [by] the thoughts I had and is derived from personal events; it’s not exactly how it played out in real life.
“It’s about love, heartbreak [and] my not so perfect, perfect life.”
Gogia’s outlook on rejection in this industry is a little different from others. He says being told ‘no’ is part of the journey and something you eventually get used to. “The normalization of rejection is due to how ‘dark’ the industry is. You have to get rejected until you find a perfect role," he said.
As Gogia is no longer a stranger to rejection, the fear of being told ‘no’ has simply vanished from his life. He expressed how much the rejections and non-stop auditions have led him to get to where he is now. Gogia says that all of these hurdles up until now in his career have helped him so much.
Dhruv Gogia and Zubair Sarookh in Filmfare Middle-East awards (Courtesy of Shaukat Sadiq)
For a long time, Gogia’s racialized identity held him back in following his dreams. He now looks at it as an opportunity to fill more unique roles. However, he is bothered by the stereotypical roles he sometimes gets offered. “I rarely get those kinds of roles, but when I do, it bothers me [when] I’m told to speak in a certain accent and dress a certain way.” Gogia says he would never take any role that doesn't authentically represent his community.
“It feels like my community is trying to be put in a box and that’s exactly what I want to change.”
“Why does a Brown guy have to be a taxi driver and not the passenger in the car and why does he have to sip masala chai and not Starbucks?” Gogia questioned.
After overcoming numerous obstacles, Gogia, at the age of 18, was named the best male TikToker by Filmfare Middle-East in 2021. Last year, in November, he signed his debut Toronto web series, was featured in a FIFA Qatar commercial which will be released soon and accumulated over 350,000 followers on TikTok and over 30,000 on YouTube.
Apart from pursuing an acting career, Gogia wishes to help other up-and-coming artists. His number one advice for people is to be authentic and not settle for the bare minimum. “I realized when I was doing TikTok before, I was just not being myself because I was trying to be the people that I watched on the internet,” he said. Gogia realized people liked him more when he was his authentic self.
At the end of the day, Gogia would not change a single thing about his life because he believes everything happens for a reason. “I can literally point out instances that were bad, but also what came out of it.
“It’s a journey and appreciate everything in this journey,” Gogia expresses.
Gogia learned to change his perspective towards life and so success came his way because you cannot find success without facing rejections.