What attracted you to the character of Sanyogita in Prithviraj? How do you prepare to portray characters from different time periods or cultural backgrounds?
We all grew up listening to the stories of Sanyogita and Prithviraj, and I think there is one character that I am very familiar with. I’m fascinated. So I was very excited when Prithviraj was offered to me because I have always loved watching movies about history.In fact, I’m portraying a character that we read about in folklore, and I remember that in Amar Chitra Katha Very exciting. Therefore, playing the role of Princess Sanjogita is a very exciting thing, but of course, the preparation requires a lot of research. Understand the timeline, understand the director’s perspective and what his vision is for the character. So we had to do a lot of research and a lot of preparation to be able to play someone from a different timeline and have a different life. She was a princess and then her character evolved into a queen who stood up for herself. So keep that in mind while understanding the director’s vision for the character. So I think it’s a combination of all of that.What do you think of the emotional depth and complexity of these iconic characters?
As I mentioned before, she goes through a journey from being fiercely protected in the palace, beloved by her father, to standing up for what she believes to be her rights – her right to love, her right to choose a life partner, and The right to resist. Thereafter, once she married, she would fight for her rights as a woman in court. So, I feel like this character has matured a lot at such a young age. The character I played was much younger than I was at the time. This is my first film, so it was important for me to be able to bring those layers into the character and understand that she had certain experiences and our experiences make us who we are, and that’s our character development. So it was really important to me to understand her character development and be able to convey that. Of course, she also has a certain innocence because she’s still young and just a girl in love.
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But then there’s a certain frustration when she faces the world and realizes that things are skewed toward a certain gender, and she’s fearless in expressing that there’s a certain imbalance and a certain hypocrisy in society. She was very opinionated, which was surprising for a woman at the time. So, I think that all makes her character very interesting, lasting, and really fun to portray. I guess I just hoped that, being my first film, the audience would appreciate the effort I put into it. I really worked hard on the character and we did have a specific point of view. So, I guess my hope is just that their takeaway is that this is some version of things, this is some interpretation, and we also have fun while we’re all paying attention to it and we also enjoy this different world of our directors created.
Can you discuss any challenges in embodying the essence of a character while staying true to the historical or mythological narrative?
History is always controversial. There are different versions of history. Different writers have different interpretations of the same thing. So everyone is going to have an opinion, everyone is going to have a different school of thought. So I think the first thing is to understand that we’re making a film, and film is the director’s medium.For our film we referenced a book written by the author Chand Balde. So, you know, we mentioned Prithviraj Raso. With that in mind, I think it’s very important to exclude all other interpretations and understand that to portray this particular character, you only have to focus on the director’s interpretation and the director’s vision for the character. At the same time, you know, I think the timeline, in fact, this is a time that we can read about, we can hear, we can interpret it, but it’s not a time that we see with our own eyes. So, you know, bringing that into the contemporary world, we’re able to communicate with the audience and, you know, speak in a specific language that sounds, you know, dated in some way, and, you know, the audience People today are able to understand this language and understand the communication between characters. So, you know, I think these are little challenges that people face.
At the same time, I think one of the things I always say about my character is, you know, when I read the script, I realized that Sayida could be from a different century. She might dress differently, you know, in a certain way, live in a house with a very different architectural style, might have different hobbies. But it’s all external. Deep down, her struggle was the same one most women face today. This makes her character very modern and relatable. So I feel like, as an actor, it’s about bridging the gap between the director’s vision, especially when it’s a historical figure, a historical figure, and making it accessible to today’s audience, who can understand it. So I think, you know, the actor has to be that bridge and the actor has to be that bridge. I think that’s another huge challenge in this role.
