MUMBAI: Actress Megha Ray, who plays the role of Radhika in Sapnon Ki Chhalaang' produced by Nilanjana Purkayasstha and Herumb Khot’s Invicts T Mediaworks, says that the show has got a great response. The actress adds that she is in love with her character.
“The character is not a normal TV girl, she gives as good as she gets. I love it when she gets into her Jhansi element and gives it back in her own style, to anyone who does wrong or is condescending. She's not a normal TV girl, bechari and helpless. She believes in solving problems and confronting issues rather than hiding them under the rug, even if that means having to put her foot down during awkward circumstances. She's not inherently brave but like every normal person she does get scared, nervous, anxious. However, she just doesn't know how to give up. Her ambition in life means a lot to her and so she's very ‘dheet’ or stubborn,” she says.
She adds, “She knows herself enough to not let go of her unique perceptions about life or her value system but at the same time, she can adapt as per her surroundings and genuinely respect all other schools of thought without judging them.”
Talking about her equation with her co-actors, she says, “This is the first time I'm working with such a huge cast. I literally have three families here - my Jhansi family (whom I miss a lot because I haven't worked with them since Radhika moved to Mumbai), my Mumbai house family and my office family. Due to the nature of the plot of our show, I don't get to spend much time continuously with a particular set of cast, yet I've developed a unique bond with each of them. Personally I've grown to value female friendships a lot more now. I hadn't had a great experience during my younger days with female friendships because most of them turned on me when I achieved something good or won at some competition. Later, when I started pursuing engineering there were just negligible numbers of girls around and by the time I was working in a software company there was not a single girl in my team. So, I had to learn to become friends with boys and I made some great friends who I'm still in touch with and they have a special place in my life. I just have one childhood female friend but she lives in a different city. Now when I'm working in a show where it is primarily a female cast and we're focusing on female friendships, it hits me how much I miss that feminine presence in my life. We all bonded almost instantly, be it my female office cast or roommates, or Kashish ji who is playing my mother. I've developed pretty close bonds with most of my female co-stars. As for Pulkit, I'm elated we're working together again. We are playing entirely different characters from our past show that we did together and not once did we feel that we've worked together before- that's how much we both are into our characters. That doesn't happen often. Other than that, the roommates and I have a blast on set, cracking jokes, laughing and pulling each other's legs.”
Megha says that the audience is loving the show. “Calls, messages from all over the world, letting me know how much they love watching the show, really warms my heart. The response has been unanimous. They all say the content is great as well as the performances. They just cannot wait to watch the next episode. They say it doesn't feel like they're watching a daily soap, but it feels like a movie like. The show empowers women and addresses many issues apart from just entertainment so people are really loving every bit of it!” she says.
Her character has a quirk of eating her hair and this is something that she has adjusted to as well, laughs Megha. “It took me a long time to adjust to Radhika's habit of chewing her hair (hahahaha) I used to get so disgusted and make faces before every shot where I had to chew my hair. My director would joke telling me - why don't you put some chocolate sauce on it and enjoy it.
But the more I kept playing my character, it came to me almost naturally (as Radhika) to chew my hair when I got stressed. I guess that's what happens when you get into the skin of your character. You become someone else without even realising and that feels so good!”
She adds that this show is very significant for her. “I see this show as a pure work of art and passion. The entire team values quality and authenticity. It is that strong script which every actor dreams of being a part of. I feel Sapnon ki Chhalaang is going to be one of my best works so far and I am going to continue working hard on my art, with utmost sincerity to make myself worthy of more such strong scripts in the future.”
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