“Would love to defy my sultry-hot image and also perform in de-glam roles,” says model-actress Samapti Patra

Chaitanya Padukone

Your latest maverick ‘Hinglish’ thriller-movie The Pick Up Artist directed by brilliant debutant director-actor Rohit Arora, is finally releasing now in select Mumbai theatres. This movie has been winning terrific audience responses. Your comments on the quirky, tantalizing title.

The title relates to this guy--an Artist--who can Pick Up any girl from any random location. Intelligently and smartly he Picks up every girl without putting any effort, How he uses his brain and his tactics to pick up the girls and get them home makes the movie worth-watching for everyone. .Otherwise this slick gripping thriller is also about a lecherous, maniac male cop Tiwari who is deputed for handling the unsolvable case of ‘missing girls’

Samapti, you seem excited about your prominent role in Pick Up Artist ?

Of course ! That’s because I am actually cast in two contrasting roles. Am playing this pretty-tough dedicated lady-cop's character whose name is Aastha who goes out of her way to solve this crime case. Later she dons the avataar of a honey-trap wow glam-girl as well. For this second contrasting glam-model role I lost eight kgs weight in just 20 days.

Being a fresher-actor it was not at all easy for me. When director-mentor Rohit asked me to play this role, I was not sure that I will not be able to do it and thought he was just kidding. But what Rohit was able to see in my potential, I wasn’t. After a month of workshops-rehearsals I figured out I could do both the roles in TPUA. Acting was something unimaginable for me but I was sure that I wanted to become an actor by that time . It was a great opportunity for me and of course it was all very challenging.

You were originally into aviation sector as a lead cabin-crew. What made you decide to 'take-off' into modeling and acting ?

Frankly speaking, am a person who cannot do similar things for a very long time. Needed change and re-invented creativity. My airline-job was clearly a repetitive one and I did it for some five years . Soon, I realised I needed to do something where I can channelise my creativity. So I left the job and ‘cruised’ into modeling and then acting ‘landed’ into my life.

Which were the other challenging roles of your acting career ?

Still have a long way to go. In this play called 'Daaru' played a character of a Marathi lady who lives in Dharavi slums with her ‘drunk’ husband and a daughter, it was a bit challenging I had to even learn the Marathi accent for that. Another comedy play ( comedy is tough) called Khusar Phusar directed by Kuljeet Singh founder of ARC theatre group Delhi.

You have acted in this popular comedy-play 'Sugar Free Girls' directed by Bollywood veteran Kawal Sharma. How was the experience ?

The Sugar Free Girls play was a wonderful learning experience. I was more excited because I was the only one came specially from Delhi to play the character with hardly any experience, Working with talented supportive co-stars was like a blessing.. Am grateful to my director-coach Kawal-sir that he insisted and motivated me to play the talkative-extrovert character of Sheetal . Which is in contrast to my real-life nature of being quiet and reserved

Samapti, you have a sensuous, oomph-hot-babe image –evident in your short-films ( like 'Chaabii' ) and this TPUA movie role. Would you also play totally de-glam roles ?

Personally I think that when every screen-character of an actor in films changes, their life if they see it closely, it changes their thought process too. So I did a very glamorous role in the Pick Up Artist I did it in Chaabii as well. But I don’t wish to be tagged as a stereotype but wish to be a versatile actor. When I started acting I was cool with any kind of roles But now I have become a bit choosy.

Only full-on glamour-roles is something I really don’t want to do all the time.. Maybe, streaks of glamour in a character is okay but I’m not up for explicit bold scenes and unnecessary nudity, just for titillation value. Which we are seeing nowadays in almost every other OTT web-series. For a change, I would even love to defy my sultry-hot image and also act in de-glam, performance-centric roles.

Briefly describe your ‘true-colours’ personality ?

I believe I am an honest person and like honesty around me. I can’t ‘pretend’ to be something else and I can’t stand pretentious people, I have immense amount of patience which makes me a good listener.

Which hidden talents did you ‘discover’ during the lock-down stay-at-home period ?

It was a life-changing phase for me, I got to know so much about myself, did so much introspection. Like most people, I too learnt cooking, got into yoga and meditation which I used to do off and on. But now it’s a daily routine, I started learning ukulele (small strings-instrument like guitar) and also started dabbled in portrait-painting.

Which three Bolly directors and movie-actors are on your dream-wish-list ?

Am a huge fan of Anurag Kashyap, Shoojit Sircar, Zoya Akhtar,and there are many more with whom I really want to work. The brilliant actors in my wish-list are Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Farhan Akhtar and talented newcomers like Vijay Varma.

Samapti, what are you optimistically looking forward to, in 2021 ?

Learning has become a part of my daily routine. I just want to continue this process as an actor and as a human being I want to read I want to learn every aspect of the process of an actor, During 2021, I see myself doing more of theatre and correcting and building up my acting-craft.