"I do not have a long resume but I'm proud of the work I've done"

THE ANSWER to Delhi's crime has been phenomenal. Have you felt some responsibility in trying the role?
When doing a series based on the real life or a person, two things are paramount – one is sensitivity and the other is responsibility. You must be extremely responsible in the way you create and represent the character. My role was that of Vartika Chaturvedi (based on IPS officer Chhaya Sharma) and the show is a fictional version of a real incident (Delhi gang rape in 2012). The goal was to create Vartika by herself without imitating anyone. To do this, director Richie Mehta has done a lot of research over the years. He knew every detail of the investigation. I had the honor to meet Chhaya Sharma even though it is only for two hours. However, I was lucky that she could answer the questions I had during filming. Richie had said that he wanted a collaborator and not an actor. Playing this role was my biggest learning curve.

Is there a process to determine who Vartika is?
I definitely worked on who she is, whether you see him or not in a scene. It's not about trying to be like him. I had to become Vartika. We had to take into account every little detail. For example, during an interrogation scene, I wanted to roll up my sleeves. But Chhaya said that one December night in Delhi, when the police station did not have power, it was too cold to roll up their sleeves. Delhi Crime is the story of five days of investigation and research. So, keeping the emotional aspect of the story set aside, during the shooting, we had to think about the exhaustion of the characters and the duration of their awakening.

How exhausting was filming?
the seven-part series in 62 days. It was quite something with so many actors and places involved. It also reflected the urgency of solving the case and catching the criminals. During the shooting, I did not go back entirely to my own space, even at home. Whatever the time of shooting, the first thing to do is to ask the badistant directors to give my list for the next day.

There is a beautiful camaraderie between the characters. Have you worked on it?
Surprisingly, no. We did not have time for workshops. The show was quickly set up and all the actors were already busy with other projects. Yet the relationship between Vartika and Bhupinder (Rajesh Tailang) is so amazing.

Despite the appreciation you often receive for your work, why are there gaps between your appearances on the screen?
long resume but I am proud of the work that I have done. Even the public loved my work in Satya (1998), Monsoon Wedding (2001), Gandhi, My Father (2001), The Last Lear (2001), Juice (2017) and Once Again (2018), among others. Even at the beginning of my career, when I played with Satya, I did not think about the length of a role. It was a seven-minute role but it had an impact.

It was not like we were not offering enough work. But if a role did not convince me, it would be very unfair for the directors to do it. I love too much what I do to go do a job. A little earlier, it bothered me that I did not do enough work. Today, I have chosen to respect my belief, my instinct and my impulse.

Your role as Ria Verma in Monsoon around child abuse at the time. Have you deliberately opted for strong roles?
When Meera Nair approached me, the role had already been written. Meera had watched Satya. When she called me, she asked if I could speak English and added that she would like me to be her Ria. It was the role of a very strong woman. But who decides what is strong? I do not think you're strong just because you can keep a stoic face or fight. For me, even if someone is a broken and broken human being, his emotion must be strong. Neelam Mehra, the character I played in Dil Dhadakne Do (2015), must say that everything is fine in his world, even if no one in the family likes him. In Once Again, you see a strong person but at the same time poetic. She is vulnerable and ready to show it.

How different is your world from the one where you were one of the main actors in television?
I was really lucky to work on TV when the content prevailed. The manufacturers stuck to the character and content until the end of the series. Someone is not suddenly dead or turned into a naagin (snake) for the sake of notation. But we can not deny that television has started to place women at the center. In many shows, Renuka Shahane, Pallavi Joshi and Neena Gupta played central characters

Your father working at the Reserve Bank of India and your mother homeopath, your world must have been very different growing up. What brought you to play?
It happened by chance. I was studying at Arya Vidya Mandir, Santa Cruz, Mumbai. The husband of one of our teachers was director of plays in Gujarati. One day, I took some pictures of me that my mother had clicked to show my friend. The teacher saw them. Her husband was looking for a 10-year-old actor for a play in Gujarati based on the movie Omen (1976). In the room, they turned the boy into a girl who was possessed and went to kill people. There was a long interval after this role.

However, when I was trying to enter Mithibai College in Vile Talk, all the paper clippings concerning the room had been used. I wanted to be admitted to science and I did not have enough grades. After my admission, I hardly went to clbad, I only did theater. Eventually, I had roles in TV shows (Aarohan, Sea Hawks, Banegi Apni Baat and Hasratein). In the middle of all this, I realized that if I played the role and earned my salary, then it had to be my job. Today, I see things more clearly but I still have no plan.

Have you also started painting by accident?
I need a creative outlet, whether it's playing, painting or writing. For movies, I have to rely on others because the kind of work I want to accomplish happens from time to time. So I started to paint. The more I did it, the more I liked it. I have nothing to do according to the general conditions. I therefore decided to study it and a few years ago I attended a three month course in Spain. Later, I followed another course of three months. That's how it all started. I also like to read and watch movies

Did your sons, Aryaman and Maurya, watch Delhi Crime?
Yes, they said that they were very proud of me. The show is layered and has a lot of depth. I'm not sure that they understood all that. Even adults can miss a few things. In addition to the crime and investigation that the series follows, it speaks of caste and clbad difference, patriarchy and economic inequality.

When will you start working on the next season? Richie is working on the script. The characters will be the same but the crime will be different. It will be a new challenge.