Actress Kirti Kulhari has been cautious of one thing through her entire acting career and that is not repeating herself. That has been the case ever since she entered the industry, years ago, when she started acting. “Even when I used to do commercials, I remember I said to myself that I will not repeat any role. I used to be like ‘yeh toh main pehle kar chuki hun’ (I have done this before). I am driven by the idea of what’s new, what’s fresh and what more I can do. I get bored if I am doing the same thing," she says.
"When I am done with something I need to move on to something new, that will challenge me and bring me out of the comfort zone. Honestly, that is the first thing I lookout for after the script. I pretty much mark it off, if it's something I have done before,” says Kulhari who is currently garner praise for role of a closeted lesbian doctor, in the recently released web series ‘Human’.
“This has been the most gratifying thing about my career, honestly. Continuously in my career, after every release, people have tried to stereotype me, or put me in a box, but I believe I have always been able to break that,” says Kulhari. While it has now reaped results, Kulhari remembers a time, when sticking to her choices wasn’t a very lucrative option.
“You always want to work, and do good and different kind of work. But initially it used to be a very tough decision because the number of choices were limited. From that sense, to hold your ground is of course, a tough choice,” she says.
What gives her strength is her belief in herself, and the fact that she thinks differently. “When you do things that are against the norms of this industry, it will be tough. And the entertainment industry, whether it’s the directors, or the producers or anyone else, everyone wants to play it safe. [So], it’s never easy to think differently, and to even act differently,” she adds.
And after the initial struggle, she is now “proud” of the fact that she stuck with her decision, which is now resulted in her fame and popularity, which has also pushed her to set up her own production house.
“Actually, there came a point in my career, where I started enjoying what I was doing. It was almost like, ‘oh! so, you thought I will do something same again? So sorry! Fooled you again!’ So that has become my USP now. I am not afraid of making the tough choices,” she says.
“It really is an extension of myself, in terms of telling stories, that are all very different. I am so grateful that I didn’t leave the industry, and that I decided to be a part of it, and now it is such a great time to be a part of it. I really do believe that content is the king right now, and OTT has just taken it to another level,” she adds.
“At the heart of becoming producer is the idea that I want to have more say in the saying the story I want to say. I feel that I might be doing decent work as an actor. There is still so much possible. Yes, there's been a lot of improvement in the kind of stories we tell, but we are still far away from the kind of content audiences across the globe are used to watch to. And instead of just being the one to complain, I want to change things and through this I hope I will tell the stories the way I want,” she signs off.
