Q) How is the lockdown treating you?
Actor Aditi Rao Hydari talks to Outlook's Lachmi Deb Roy about how she wants to be remembered as a pan-Indian actor and her Telugu action thriller film ‘V’
Q) How is the lockdown treating you?
A) It was a little difficult at the beginning, but now it’s fine and things are settling down and we are going back to our normal routine life. Hopefully things are going to get better in a couple of months. Most importantly, this lockdown has connected me to my roots. During lockdown I started doing things that I did during my childhood days. I am also back home in Hyderabad. This phase has taught me to understand my priorities better. I have become forgiving and generous and we have started valuing what we have, finding time for ourselves and loving ourselves a little more. Most importantly, the pandemic has been a great leveller.
Q) How are you spending your time?
A) I have been dancing since I was five-years old, so I have started doing that again and I am finding time now to practice it on a regular basis. I am practicing yoga too and I have learnt to paint furniture. I have transformed all the furniture in my house. Cooking was one thing that I always loved and now I am finding time to make new dishes. I did two sets of cover shoots with my brother during lockdown for two leading magazines.
Q) Tell us about your film ‘V’ which is streaming on Amazon?
A) I am playing a girl called Saheeba, it is basically a love story between Vishnu and Saheeba. To me Saheeba is a very heroic character because she gives up all that is dear to her to protect and give justice to a little girl whom she doesn’t know. And it is Vishnu’s love for her that sets the whole story in motion.
Q) How is working in Bollywood different from working in the regional film industry?
A) I don’t look at it as two different places or industries. I look at it as the Indian film industry where we have varied voices, varied directors and varied actors and I am blessed to be a part of multiple industries and to have people accepting me in different roles and languages. I have had directors offering brilliant roles with fantastic scripts to me from regional film industries and Bollywood. To me it is more about people and how they work and not about language or region. I always wanted to be a pan-Indian actor and nowadays audiences watch films in all languages because films are stories and stories are feelings and feelings don’t have a language. You prepare more for the situations in the film, rather than culturally because culturally it is the clothes and mannerism and I come from a mixed cultural background.
Q) Tell us something about your Future projects.
A) I am working on a couple of films in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil. It's again a mixed bag of films in different languages that I am working on. But I always choose quality over quantity and the medium doesn’t matter to me. My priority at this moment is cinema and for me what matters is good scripts, good directors and good co-stars. The people that I work with are very important because that gives a healthy and positive environment to perform your best.
Q) Has OTT become the future of entertainment?
A) OTT is a part of the whole entertainment package. The theatre will always be magical and it is going to stay forever. OTT will just co-exist with the theatres.