With her brilliant performance as Rati, in the web series “Official Chukyagiri”, Aahana Kumra shares her journey of success with us. She has also been a part of “Yudh”, the Amitabh Bachchan starrer Television show as his daughter.
Trying her hand on all different mediums of Media, her experience said, “I feel really lucky to have experimented in all the platforms of acting. The only difference in all these is time. In theatre, you have to give a lot of time to rehearsals. About TV, everyone knows that there is no time; you just have to go with the flow. Even asking for a second take sometimes feels awkward. In films, they have workshops to rehearse, but it is limited. About the web, I actually still don’t know. I have done 2 web series, and everything is like “please hurry! Please hurry!” but yes, the scripts have been very good.”
About her personal favourite medium of acting, she said, “I personally enjoy being on the stage the most. It is my absolute favourite task. But yes, in films everything is under the control of the director. They will cut your scene off and you wouldn’t know. And so is similar on TV and in the web, I am new, so I am still trying to figure out such things.”
Being a brilliant stage artist, she has worked in theatre for a decade. On being a director’s actor, “I have been doing theatre for more than a decade now, so I guess you have my answer. I definitely am a director’s actor. I have been working with Naseeruddin Shah Sir and with Makarand Deshpande since past 10 years, I guess. I am associated with both till now. Naseer sir is a textbook director. He never lets you change anything. You have to say even the punctuation on the same note. On the other hand, Makarand Ji writes his own plays and so he changes things accordingly, just like the TV and film,” said Aahana.
Getting on to her favourite co-star, she exclaimed, “Thankfully I have had wonderful directors and co-actors till now. I have worked with Mr Bachchan in Yudh, I have worked with Vikrant Massey in Lipstick Under My Burkha. My first camera experience was The Blueberry Hunt with Naseer sir. For me, I swear to god, these people have been a blessing. They are all so remarkably serious and amazing at their jobs. Naseer sir and Mr Bachchan are my favourites. I cannot distinguish between them. They are both so cute and have taught me so much.”
“There is nothing like a dream role for an actor. It’s like getting a role itself is a big thing, and a good role feels like a pure blessing. And right now it is a very dynamic space. Earlier, it was only TV and films. Now there is The Web, the theatre has become so big suddenly. So I guess it is a very good time for actors to experiment,” she said about her experimenting in the field and her dream role.
On the rise of web series, she said “I am thankful to Web, YouTube, Arre films and TVF kind of platforms for such roles. Unfortunately, our industry is all star studded. It is more difficult for women here. There are still roles for men, but there are hardly a couple of movies every year for women. And there are so many good actresses that the competition becomes even tougher to be the one. So the web is a saviour.”
Lastly, on her journey from Lucknow, to Mumbai, to acting, she shared, “My first tryst with theatre was Prithvi. I had moved from Lucknow to Mumbai and didn’t have too many friends so I enrolled myself at Prithvi in a summertime workshop there and I used to spend endless hours there. I used to sleep, eat, work, everything there. It has been a playground for me. So then I got into Whistling woods and then all this happened. And there I met Naseer sir, I am so glad that I met him. Whatever I am is because of him.”
Since the censor board has put a ban on the Women oriented film, Lipstick under my Burkha, we wish Aahana and her team good luck and hope to see the film hitting the theatres soon. We wish Aahana a very good luck and thank for her time and sharing her wonderful journey with NewsAurChai.
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