‘ The darkness is intimidating’

Riya Deepsi who plays the wife of Dhritarashtra ( Gandhari) in Siddharth Kumar Tewary’s Mahabharat feels acting with a blindfold is scary. After working in Mata Ki Chowki, Mahabharat is Riya’s second television show. The actress feels she was destined to play the character of Gandhari.

Speaking about her character Riya says, “Initially I was considered for some other character, but one day I got a call and I met Siddharth sir who actually made me a surprising offer — he wanted me to play Gandhari! Apart from me, everybody was unsure about my playing the role because they thought I was too young for it. Initially I had to struggle a lot to understand the sketch of the character as Gandhari has many shades — sometimes she is helpless and can’t react because of her husband. Many- a- times, she knows things are going wrong, but does nothing.”

She admits that being blindfolded only makes things difficult. “The darkness is very intimidating. My family and friends think that my eyes are my most beautiful feature, so covering them wasn’t very easy. Every expression had to be controlled through my body language — mostly with my hands. But since I am from a theater background ( it’s been four years since I’ve been associated with Nadira Babbar’s group) I know how to do that.”