Parental support is important for people with special needs : Snigdhaa Srivastava

Snigdhaa Srivastava, the young protagonist of Shorr… Gungi Kanku ki bolti kahani’, which is probably the first Indian tele-series to have a central character who is dumb, says she now appreciates the helplessness of those who are unable to speak. As a college student in Chembur, she recalled seeing some boys who were dumb ‘talking’ in sign language and often laughing out. Though she often wondered what they were laughing at, she never took the group very seriously but now when she had to play the role of a dumb girl, it proved very challenging. This was more so because she could not use the usual sign language used by the dumb primarily because the heroine is uneducated and belongs to a family in a village where there are no special schools. Snigdhaa who plays Kanku says the director had even decided not to use any voice-over. “I have to act in such a way that the viewers will understand what I am trying to say even when I am crying or praying. I had to then co-ordinate my hand and lip movements.” Stressing that she was a girl who believed in doing things differently rather than doing different things, Snigdhaa admitted that during the shooting, there was a scene where she was unable to make the correct movements and out of frustration “spoke out. Though everyone laughed, I had to do the scene again.” She has decided to use gestures in her everyday life as per her director’s suggestion so that she is used to the character. The actress says that the serial has made her look at differently-abled people “in a normal manner. They too can be chirpy and bubbly. It is also important people with special needs get parental and family support.” Snigdhaa has earlier acted in series like Bhakti, Rahe Tera Aashirwaad, Kumkum and Paraya Dhan and stressed that she had played the typical girl next door in each of these. Shorr is essentially about a family with parents, a brother and his wife and Kanku. Though the family is poor, Kanku is never made to feel she is handicapped in any way. Well, we hope the message reaches across.