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Angad Bedi found his inspiration in Dhoni, Ganguly and Smith
Variety is the spice of life, and for actors, it only makes their journeys spicier. Ask Rasika Dugal about it, considering she has made her presence felt not just in the OTT space but also on the big screen.
“Working with Mira Nair [in A Suitable Boy] was a check on the bucket list, having a title role was a check on the bucket list. So, this year has been about a lot of things that I wanted to do. I hope I can say this every year (laughs),” Rasika says with a candour that comes with being an artiste who has waited patiently for her time in the industry.
After 2018, which saw her in projects like Mirzapur and Manto, Rasika featured in Delhi Crime, Made in Heaven, Out of Love and a sensitive film such as Hamid this year. Her comedy film Lootcase was also due for release, but it has been pushed to 2020.
Diversifying, she says, is not a strategic move. “But I think it is something that I genuinely crave for as an actor. I wanted to do things which made me have a different physicality, for instance Beena in Mirzapur, Neeti in Delhi Crime or Safia in Manto. I want a variety of roles which help me explore different worlds,” she says.
Hamid, Rasika points out, was a unique and immersive experience. “It was an effort to understand what people in Kashmir might be going through. It required me to try and immerse myself in a different world. For Beena, I was required to have a physicality very different from my comfort zone. So, I was constantly — subconsciously or maybe consciously — craving for different experiences, but there was no strategic choice. I didn’t go out looking for it. But, I always believe that when you crave for something, it genuinely happens to you.”
However, Rasika admits she was on a conscious lookout for a role which drives the narrative, and that happened with Out Of Love, a web show wherein she has effectively displayed her range as an actor while playing a woman of many shades.
“It was a very interesting experience for me because I had absolutely no days off. There was immense pressure in terms of just working, in terms emotional exertion of working on a role like that...so I was really craving for that experience, and it happened this year,” adds the actor, who recently wrapped up Nair’s ambitious word-to-screen adaptation of Vikram Seth’s novel.
The 34-year-old says it was a very happy set with a very good vibe. “Mira, with all her masti and mazaa, made it great for all of us,” she adds.
Shreya Mukherjee
Every actor follows a certain method while preparing for his or her character. Angad Bedi too has his own method. And the actor, who is part of a cricket-based web series, did his homework before he went on the set. The names he drew inspiration from are all former popular cricket captains, Sourav Ganguly, Steve Smith and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. What also came in handy were his own cricketing skills.
“To be a player and to be a team leader are very different things. So before starting the shoot, I read up on how successful captains fared — what they did right, how they kept up the collective morale of the team. I have really looked up iconic captain figures such as Sourav Ganguly, Steve Smith and MS Dhoni. It was equally important for me to study what went wrong with a few captains and why they couldn’t succeed at holding together a team even though they were exemplary players in their own right,” says Angad, who also played a cricketer in his last film The Zoya Factor.
Talking more about the research he put in for his role, the actor adds that “team playing in cricket is a collective effort” and therefore it’s very important to understand each and every player’s mind and skill sets, to keep them together.
“And the job of a captain is to create dynamics where everyone’s strengths are doubled up, thus taking a team to victory. It requires setting a good example, keeping them pepped up, understanding the opposition and accordingly changing strategies. The focus is always on the team more than their own self. It’s a selfless job and it’s not for everybody. Through my research, I tried to make my character as rooted in reality as possible… That the audience has liked my performance makes me believe I didn’t go wrong with my research,” Angad adds.
If you want a family audience to see it, you have to think on those lines as well. Some shows give hope that good content is getting made... rather than just sex and abuses that we show in the name of content.
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