Cusp of Greatness
Shriya Pilgaonkar comes into her own as an intrepid reporter in Zee5’s The Broken News
On a humid afternoon in May, seated against the backdrop of a poster of Amélie, Shriya Pilgaonkar is savouring a small pizza on what she says is her “last cheat day”. She has just finished a round of promotions for the second season of the Zee5 show, The Broken News (released on May 3). Unlike her peers, she loves the publicity tour. “I get to dress up,” she says. “A lot of characters I play don’t end up dressing so much.”
Pilgaonkar is talking about her parts in The Broken News (Radha, an intrepid reporter) and Guilty Minds (Advocate Kashaf, a righteous lawyer) which have made her the woke girl of streaming, who fights the good fight. They showcase an actor adept at heavy dramas, and also earned her the tag of “serious actor”. In Bhuvan Bam-created comedy thriller, Taaza Khabar, she got to hop o the moral high ground. That show too returns for another season later this year on Disney+ Hotstar. Pilgaonkar doesn’t want to be stereotyped. “I want to dance on screen, do a fantastic love story. I know I am capable [of it], it’s just someone taking the leap of faith to present me in that way,” she says.
On the surface, Pilgaonkar is part of the ‘nepo baby’ brigade but she’s cut from another stone. The only child of actors Sachin and Shriya Pilgaonkar, who have thrived in both Hindi and Marathi cinema, she didn’t want to be an actor for the longest time. Instead, her interest lay in swimming, academics and extra-curricular activities. Learning kathak, including abhinaya, helped her connect with the actor within her. Add to it that she always believed “in the power and wonder of story”. “My father told me a new story every night before going to bed. I know what it can do to your imagination and creativity,” she adds.
In many ways Pilgaonkar’s cinematic journey commenced perfectly, being cast alongside Shah Rukh Khan in Fan (2016). “I was proud that I started o with a film that was taking risks,” she says. The action thriller with its metacommentary on stardom and hard look at fandom, however, failed to win over the masses. “I know better than to assume things will go as per plan,” she says. “You have to improvise in life as you do on camera.” She landed two films but they failed to take o. She acted in plays, did a small part in a French film and auditioned. Two years later, she found herself in the “blockbuster” she wanted, Amazon Prime’s Mirzapur. Soon Pilgaonkar was being called on the streets by her character’s name, Sweety. “It gave me the momentum, push and fame but
I still wanted to take time to lock something that would truly give me scope to perform,” she notes. That opportunity came her way in 2022 with two strong-headed, driven protagonists— Kashaf and Radha. Much like them, she has learned to stand up for herself.
What Pilgaonkar needs is a big screen break, like her Mirzapur co-star Vikrant Massey recently experienced with 12th Fail. “More than restart, for me it is shifting gears,” she says. “I want to get parts which surprise people. I feel I am on the cusp of something exciting. What that is, I don’t know yet.” It’s in the not knowing that Pilgaonkar finds endless possibilities.