Radhika Apte: 'Nobody Makes Me Feel Important'

Low-key star Radhika Apte brings a relaxed sweetness and subtlety to the movies—and to make-up, says Mamta Mody

- Mamta Mody

In Bollywood terms, Radhika Apte is an anomaly. Scan her short but emphatic body of work and you’ll know why. For starters, she has acted in seven languages, including Tamil, Telugu and Bengali. Her choice of films, from the commercially successful Lai Bhaari (2014) to festival-favourite Parched (2015), is always discerning. And no matter how little her screen time, Apte never fails to make a lasting impression.

The Pune-native cut her teeth in theatre with the contemporary group Aasakta, and got her first big break in 2009 with Antaheen, a National Award-winning Bengali film. Since then, she has been testing new waters with every project, and within the last two years has gathered an enviable portfolio. There are the commercial Badlapur (2015) and Kabali (2016), in which she played the female lead opposite superstar Rajinikanth. The indie films Hunterrr and Manjhi: The Mountain Man (both 2015) that won her critical accolades. Her short film, Ahalya, with director Sujoy Ghosh, got as much attention as a mainstream feature. She also won Best Actress in an International Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival last year for her role in Anurag Kashyap’s Clean Shaven, a six-part anthology film about love. Apte then proved her mettle as a protagonist in Leena Yadav’s Parched and the psychological thriller,