Actress Meera Chopra's recent release was Sandeep Singh's 'Safed' which premiered on Zee5. She played a young widow in the film. Though the film didn't receive positive reviews, Meera has been praised for her performance. Before the release of the film, Outlook India had a chat with Meera where she spoke about the film, her preparation for the character, not getting much work in Bollywood despite family connections and more.
'Safed's poster was unveiled during the 75th Cannes Film Festival. On this Meera Chopra said, ''That was such a surreal and proud moment. Cannes is a place where every big director and actor and the entire industry of the world is under one roof. The response was very amazing''.
Meera has played a de-glam role in 'Safed'. On playing the character that she has never donned, the actress said, ''I think de-glam has nothing to do with tough or an easy role. De-glam is the reality because we have to show reality in cinema. Even though in big commercial cinema, realism is fading away, on OTT, real stories are shown and de-glam shouldn't be a challenge anymore for an actor. Earlier, we used to shy away from movies with no makeup or good outfits''.
She said that she didn't wear makeup, or have a hairdresser and wore one saree throughout the entire film. Meera also added that it's refreshing to go on the set without makeup.
When asked if there was an emotional breakdown while shooting for 'Safed'. To which she shared, ''I did Section 365 and it was an emotionally draining film but the breakdown in that film happened only once with me during the rape scene. It was very very tough. But honestly, in this movie, the breakdown was every day because it's a one-hour film. Every scene is intense and heavy on you. It was very difficult for me to feel the pain of the widows''.
''There was preparation for inner conflict in the film. I had to understand the pain of those young widows. I hope I did justice to my character,'' she added.
Meera has worked mostly in South films. She hasn't done many movies in Bollywood despite being related to big actresses like Priyanka Chopra and Parineeti Chopra.
The '1920 London' actress said it doesn't help her get work in Bollywood even though her cousins are from the industry. She added, ''Honestly, I have been treated as a very new girl in the industry. I had my struggles as a new girl and as an outsider.''
''In one of the interviews, I said maybe my conflict is maybe with the way I look. I get more commercial movies and stereotypical heroine roles which I didn't want to do. The kind of cinema I want to do is not offered to me and directors-producers say that I don't fit in the role. It has happened to me a couple of times because when you want to do a movie like Safed, no director would imagine that I would fit in it. I don't know how Sandeep did. He asked me to focus on my acting and he would take care of how I should look,'' she said further.
