Manushi Chhilllar feels blessed as she celebrates 23rd birthday

As she turned 23 today, former Miss World Manushi Chhillar expressed gratitude for all the blessings in her life.

"I have had a blessed life and I thank the universe for everything. I have nothing but gratitude for the exposures that I have had so far and I'm proud that I have been able to express myself completely along the way," she said.

The 23-year-old actor who will soon be seen opposite Akshay Kumar in 'Prithviraj' further said that she is extremely excited to see how life unfolds for her in the coming years.

"My journey has just begun and I'm extremely excited to see how my life and career shapes up," said Chhillar.

Elaborating about her birthday that she celebrated during the lockdown this time, the former Miss India said, "It is a reflective birthday for me. All that I thought I knew about the world has changed and I have had time to think about this a lot and discuss it with my family and friends."

"So, it's a very quiet birthday for me as celebrations is the last thing on my mind right now given the pain, loss, and suffering I have been witnessing," she added.

She acknowledged that the media and entertainment industry has been hit hard but exuded confidence that Bollywood will bounce back.

"I think all the thinkers and visionaries of Bollywood will huddle in making plans to script the industry's comeback as and when it's feasible. We live in an intimate country, a country that likes to celebrate with everyone so we will all go back to watching movies in theatres in due course of time," she said.

She is confident that people would want to come back to the theatres and celebrate such moments with their families.

Expressing her firm belief that entertainment works will soon be back on the tracks, she said, "We will go back to living our lives for sure but I hope we will all value our freedom, our country, our nature that much more."

"As of now, we will just need to wait and hope for things to first become better for all the countrymen, economy to bounce back, everyone being safe, healthy, and back to working," she added.

The 23-year-old actor is gearing up for her debut in Yash Raj Films' 'Prithviraj.'

( With inputs from ANI )