Lightness Of Being

AS RADHIKA APTE GETS READY FOR HER DIRECTORIAL DEBUT, FRATERNITY FRIENDS SAIF ALI KHAN, VICKY KAUSHAL, AND ANURAG KASHYAP AMONG OTHERS, QUIZ HER ON HER CRAFT, EVOLUTION AS AN ACTOR AND THE IMPORTANCE OF FINDING HER CENTRE

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?