KALKI KOECHLIN: You just directed your first short film. How was your experience handling actors?
RADHIKA APTE: I do feel that direction is quite difficult. A lot of times, I have heard: ‘As an actor, yours is an easy job’. And I understand that direction is difficult, in a different way. But having done all of that, I feel that an actor’s job is also quite tough. And direction can be extraordinarily stressful. It has taken me eight years of practice to never tell my co-actors what to do—because it’s just a rule. And I have practised it so hard. But then, when it was my film and the actors were performing, I just didn’t know how to give them honest feedback. I couldn’t gather the courage to tell them what to do. So now, the few things that I couldn’t tell them, I’m going to have to fix in dub (laughs). But yes, I was really blessed to work with good actors; and I think good actors are really a treat to work with. So, yeah, next time it’s going to be you Kalki, hopefully.
SUJOY GHOSH: Was there any one defining moment when you realised that acting is your calling? Or is this what you always wanted to do?
RA: I always wanted to be an actor. But I kept fluctuating between wanting to do theatre or films. And then I got my first film, which was plain luck. I had never faced a camera before but for a oneshot scene, the camera travelled with me and it was reading my face. It felt like the camera was my confidante. In the scene, I was falling in love with a man, which the camera could see but the man in question couldn’t. The camera felt like a very dear friend to me. And at that moment I realised that I liked the experience so much that I wanted to do more films.
LEENA YADAV: In which scene in Parched did you feel the most ‘naked’ while performing as an actor?
This story is from the December 2019 edition of Elle India.
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This story is from the December 2019 edition of Elle India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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