Special Interview With REENA MADHUKAR

In tis exclusive and intimate e mail interview with JYOTHI VENKATESH for Mayapuri and bollyy.com, pretty Reena Madhukar states that as an actress it is her dream to work with directors like Aditya Sarpotdar and Rohit Shetty

Excerpts from the conversation with Reena Madhukar

You played the role of Tia in Disney channel India show ‘Kya Mast Hai Life’, what do you feel when you look back at your debut role in the serial?

This role will always be very close to my heart and very special because it was my debut. I really miss those times we had a blast shooting for ‘Kya Mast Hai Life.

The team was superb, all the co-artists and the direction team everybody was superb and being my very first show I was anyway bit nervous because I was doing this kind of show first time and but the team made me very comfortable and it always be special because I learnt a lot and have made very good friends and very happy and proud to be a part of Television’s biggest teen show ever.

This kind of show was not made neither before nor after so I am very proud and blessed to be part of Television’s biggest teen show ever.

It was with the Aamir Khan starrer ‘Talaash’ that you made your debut as an actor in Bollywood as the female police constable Savita. How was the experience of sharing the frame with Aamir?

Yes it was very thrilling very exciting when I gave my audition at that point of time, I didn't know that this was for Aamir Khan's film ‘Talaash’.

I got a call from Excel Entertainment and had submitted my pictures at Excel Entertainment and one day they just called me for an audition.

At that time, I was doing ‘Kya Mast Hai Life’ and I have already got into that groove of acting and started loving acting so I just generally went there for an audition and they took audition in six different characters and one day I just got a call saying that I've been selected for two roles.

one was this police constable and one was a TV newsreader and that's when they told me that this is with Amir Khan sir and then I ask that which were out of these two with Amir Khan sir I want to do it.

So, then they told me about this police constable Savita and I took up this role, and those five days which I shot with Amir sir were so amazing. He is Mr. Perfectionist as all say which I could actually experience while shooting with him.

I saw how he make sure that every scene is perfect and the way he says his dialogues, the way he carries himself, the way he performs in front of the camera, it was a great learning experience for me and I could see Mr. Perfectionist is working right in front of my eyes and feel truly blessed to be a part of ‘Talaash’ and getting to work with Amir Khan sir in very initial days of my career.

You played the role of the forensic female doctor Aarti Mistry in the popular TV serial ‘Agent Raghav-Crime Branch’. How did you prepare for your character?

This was a very interesting character for me because being a doctor you needed that kind of knowledge or at least those specific medical terminology you should know which I had to use there.

So, sometimes it becomes difficult as some medical terms in the script were difficult to pronounce.

Then I used to call a friend of mine who is a doctor and I used to ask him how to pronounce it and what is the meaning of this term because when you are performing in front of the camera if you don’t know the meaning of what you are saying you cannot perform well that’s why I used to take some knowledge from him.

I was enjoying that process of learning new words, their pronunciations, and their meaning. It was fun for me.

How was your experience of working in the film ‘Behen Hogi Teri’ where Shruti had a major role?

I loved working in the film ‘Behen Hogi Teri’. We shot that film for about 30 days in the cold weather of Lucknow (15 Days in December and 15 days in January). It was an amazing experience working with the star cast.

This was my 2nd film with Rajkumar Rao. My first film was ‘Talaash’ with Rajkumar Rao and then this ‘Behen Hogi Teri’ and Shruti Hasan, Ninad Kamat, Darshan Jariwala, all the best people from the industry were there in this film and we had a blast shooting, it was a great learning experience as well and some fun times we had there, some food moments as Lucknow is known for its foods so we used to go out to eat authentic food of Lucknow.

So overall an amazing experience and I would call it my Bollywood debut because this was a proper role for me and it was a quite big role so I would call ‘Behen Hogi Teri’ my Bollywood debut.

Tell me something about your roles in Marathi films like ‘Zhalla Bobhata’, ‘Ajintha’ and ‘Dev Devharyat Nahi’?

In my entire career of acting I always strive to do something different than the normal heroine kind of roles.

So, if you see all of my characters in whatever I have done right from the beginning, be it ‘Ajintha’, be it ‘Zhalla Bobhata’, ‘Behen Hogi Teri’, and ‘Dr. Arti Mistry from Agent Raghav’ anything that has done so far is always been different from my previous character or something very different.

So, in ‘Ajintha’ I played the role of ‘Adivasi Girl’ character, ‘Zhalla Bobhata’ was a very rural set up so I was shown in a very village girl kind of a character again that was very much different from ‘Ajintha’ and ‘Dev Devharyat Nahi’ we just shot half of it and will be shooting the next half very soon.

So, the ‘Dev Devharyat Nahi’ is again the urban character but the girl is from ‘Chawl’. There are very different shades I would say this character has.

So, I have always tried doing something different in whatever work I had done and I love working towards my character so you can see that hard work, dedication in every character that I portray.

So, ‘Zhalla Bobhata’, ‘Ajintha’ and ‘Dev Devharyat Nahi’ all three characters are completely different from each other and I enjoyed doing all the three.

Why did it take you a long time to make your debut in Marathi television with the serial ‘Man Udu Udu Jhala’?

I always wanted to do Marathi television. I have done Hindi, Marathi films, and theatre.

Hindi television I have done, Marathi television was the only thing that I have never done and I really wanted to experience that and I was waiting for the right opportunity for this.

I got a lot of television offers before also but I was really waiting for something nice to come across and the last year because of pandemic I didn't do anything I was just at home because I have a senior patient at home so I didn't want to go out and do anything.

So last entire year I was that home and this year when I decided to start my work and that's when ‘Man Udu Udu Jhala’ was offered to me and ‘Zee Marathi’ I think is the best platform I feel because every Marathi household watches Zee Marathi, every Marathi Speaking House not don't just in Maharashtra but across the world, I will say wherever there are Marathi speaking household-they watch Zee Marathi.

So, I think it’s the best platform to be on and Mandar Deosthali is the director. I have always heard very good things about Mandar Deosthali sir.

My lot of friends from the industry used to tell me that if you want to do Marathi television, you should do it with Mandar Deosthali sir and that’s the best experience you will get and when I heard that ‘Man Udu Udu Jhala’ is being directed by Mandar Sir immediately I just said yes to this and I really feel blessed that I am a part of this project and I'm learning a lot and I'm having a blast while shooting so ‘Der Aaye Durust Aaye’ but I think ‘Man Udu Udu Jhala’ was my project to be on Marathi television and it happened now.

Tell me about the role of ‘Sanika Deshpande aka Sanu’ that you play in the serial as a bold girl who lives her life on her own terms and conditions? Is It a lot like what you are in real life?

‘Sanika Deshpande’ is a lot like how I am in my real life because I stand for the right thing even if it is it means that you have to fight at home for my own thing that time yes I have done that before too.

Sanu in a lot of ways like Reena in real life but in that also they have shown that she is blind love, she is ready to leave the family and I am not like that I understand what is right and wrong but a lot of qualities are similar like loving the family but standing for the right thing if needed fighting with my family for the right thing so I think Sanu in a way is a lot like Reena in real life except for a few things like I said being blind in love and running away from home, so I am not like that.

Which are your forthcoming projects right now?

Currently, I am completely busy with ‘Man Udu Udu Jhala’. There are a lot of offers that are coming but I haven't chosen any because again new Coronavirus Omicron variant scare coming in.

so I want to go slowly and steadily and wait for the right offer and then let's see how it works but with television with ‘Man Udu Udu Jhala’ it's really difficult to find out time for any other project so I’ll have to wait and see how to go about the new project.

Name the directors you would love to work with in both Marathi as well as Hindi films?

In Marathi, I am working with the best director as of now Mandar Deosthali sir but film if you ask me, I would like to work with Aditya Sarpotdar because I really love his work and I would love to work with him on some Marathi film and in Hindi film, if you ask me, Rohit Shetty, I would really like to be a part of Rohit Shetty film.

How do you approach a role when you are offered a different role as an actor?

As I have said earlier, I love to experiment with different characters, I like to experiment with different looks so I'm always on the lookout for something different which I have done in my previous films.

Every role has been different from whatever I have done previously so whenever something is offered to me like in the Marathi film ‘31 Divas’ I played the role of a blind girl so when something like this is offered to me, I always try to take some training for that.

For ‘31 Diwas’ we had a blind person coming and training us he is known as a blind educator so he has trained Ayushmann Khurana for ‘Andhadhun’ and he keeps on training Bollywood celebrities and regional celebrities for playing blind on screen.

So, he came and trained me and Shashank Ketkar for about 10-15 days. We had to blindfold ourselves and learn the tricks and learn minor things from him.

So, I enjoyed this process of getting into character; I love to do some research on the character how the character would walk, how the character would talk, So I enjoyed this process of getting into the character and that's how I prepare for my role apart from that the directors always there to help and to tell his vision and his way of looking at that character so that really helps.

So, enjoy working towards that character and getting into that character that entire process I enjoyed a lot.