I believe in equality of sexes and in compatibility - Rishina Kandhari

Talented TV actress Rishina Kandhari who was earlier seen in Savitri as Nakshatra is quite kicked about her ongoing Zee TV historical Buddha. “I play a seductress called Mohini who runs her own pleasure house. Since prince Siddhartha who later becomes Buddha was not interested in worldly pleasures, his worried father (Shakya king) approaches me to try to change his views. Accordingly Siddhartha comes in contact with me, but rather than me changing him, he begins to influence me.” Says Rishina, “He makes us aware that there is much more to the world than just carnal pleasures. He also makes us realize that we women have the power to say ‘no’. Slowly and steadily Siddhartha makes Mohini change. You will need to watch the coming episodes to see how he does it.” Being a modern woman, what do you feel about the concept of ‘pleasure women’ in today’s times, we ask her. “It was a different era then and it gets very difficult to explain it in today’s times. However in my limited understanding, I think since a woman did not have education they did not have anything else to do. Having said this, many ganikas who were beautiful led very rich and lavish lives. Some even married kings or influential people. Siddhartha saw this for years and tried to make some changes. In fact he encourages the marriage of one ganika to which my character replies that we have seen many ‘suhaag raat’ in my pleasure house, but never a ‘shaadi’.” “Another major factor which made women behave the way they did back then was inequality, which exists even today. For e.g. my other shows Pratha and Na Aana Is Des Laado dealt with honour killings and female infanticide respectively. I am glad that with rise in education such things are now becoming a thing of the past,” she goes on to aver. So in closing we ask her about her thoughts of being today’s woman to which she avers, “I am a normal woman, but yes I stand for women’s rights. I believe in equality of the sexes and in compatibility, for at the end of the day we both need to co-exist.” Besides Buddha, Rishina is also playing an important character in Zee TV’s other show Khelti Hai Zindagi Aankh Micholi. We wish Rishina all the very best for her roles.