Radical And Apt

With six releases across multiple platforms, the Sacred Games actor can call 2018 her own. Now, the challenge is to sustain herself in the mainstream.

- Kunal Purandare

IN 2007, RADHIKA APTE, THEN 22, was in a tight embrace with co actor Ashish Mehta when the curtains opened for Tu, a play staged in Latur, in the interiors of Maharashtra. The crowd at the venue, probably unaccustomed to such physical proximity in public view, began whistling and hooting, with some even flashing laser lights on the actors.

Director Mohit Takalkar sensed the acute discomfort it had caused to his actors and rushed to the wings to pacify them. “It [the crowd behaviour] was insulting. Radhika’s eyes had turned moist. I waved my hand to calm her down and told her to continue,” recalls Takalkar, founder of Aasakta Kalamanch, a non-profit theatre organisation in Pune. “Once she left Ashish’s arms, she just glided on the floor, as if to suggest, ‘Now the stage is mine. Nobody needs to do anything’.”

This ability to own the stage and have a sense of oneness with the medium has been an invaluable asset throughout Apte’s journey as an actor. And 2018, in particular, has brought that to the fore to a wider audience. She had six releases this year: From commercial movies like Pad Man, Andhadhun and Baazaar to Netflix originals Sacred Games, Ghoul and Lust Stories.

Apte, now 33, has chosen a path less trodden than the one aspiring actors usually take. Some of her early films were in regional languages: Gho Mala Asla Hava and Samaantar in Marathi and Antaheen in Bengali, all 2009 releases. Subsequently, her filmography consists of a host of independent or niche movies like Parched (2016) and Phobia (2016) interspersed with mainstream ones such as Badlapur (2015) and online releases, which includes the short film Ahalya (2015).