In an exclusive conversation with Firstpost, Aaditi Pohankar shared how she got in the skin of Bhumi for She, her biggest takeaway from the series and more

Actress Aaditi Pohankar, who made her big-screen debut with Riteish Deshmukh's Lai Bhaari in 2014, is currently basking the success of She season 2. The gorgeous lady has impressed the audience with his impeccable performance in the series, which is created by Imtiaz Ali. While the show is garnering praises across the country, in an exclusive conversation with Firstpost, Aaditi shared how she got in the skin of Bhumi for She, her biggest takeaway from the series and more. Excerpts from the interview:

She is one of the toughest female roles I have seen. How has it affected your life personally?

To answer the first question, yes, it was very, very intense and a tough part to play. To play Bhumika's character as an actor, I feel any part that you play does come from a certain truth that is there within you as a human being. So it does affect you to a large extent as it affects the character which is written. So, personally, it took me a while to come out of Bhumika's character because there is so much pain, fear, betrayal, vulnerability. I think that at some point, I realised that I should stop here, instead of going deeper into the skin of the character.

I felt it was getting way too intense for me, especially in the second season because there is so much that is going on with Bhumika. There is so much that's going on in her mind that it's impossible for somebody to not get affected at all. I still remember I woke up thinking I was Bhumi. I didn't realise that it was just, not a dream, I would say but a conscious presence of the character living with me. So yeah, it affected me to that extent.

Bhumi is many people, many emotions all at once. How did you search and find her core?

Yes, Bhumi is many people and many emotions all at once. And I think I found her core in the writing. Maybe I just followed the writing and the writer, Imtiaz Ali, and there was somewhere that truth, that was there, you know, within the character, I just had to go and tap into that truth. So, it was important for me to realise Bhumi’s source and where she operates from. She was operating from a place of love and innocence, if you look at it closely, so, once I got that thread in my hand, I could weave my character very strongly.  I would say it was difficult because there is not one moment where she has not had the fear of death. Plus there is dark seduction, plus she is speaking the truth, but the moment she chooses to speak the truth, it is a lie. So these are very complex emotions of a human mind. So to dabble into them, and to get the crux out of it, rather than making it look like a regular drama. It took a little bit of time, a lot of effort, a lot of readings, rehearsals, and eventually, I think it amalgamated. Aaditi came together with Bhumi at the point of a source which was love. And that's where I think the core was and that's how I could operate because once you know that it's love, there are emotions of betrayal, there is anger, there's fear there's manipulation, melancholy everything is a byproduct of that like there are different avenues of love. So I think love was the core.

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Going back, tell me how you, a relative newcomer, managed to get such a meaty layered challenging role?

I think it's pure providence. I really wanted to, I was itching to perform. As an actor I had collected so much from the people I worked with in Prithvi, you know, doing stage and it's not been too long that I have been acting. The internet says Dibakar Banerjee’s  Love Sex Aur Dhokha was my first but that's not true. I was not a part of LSD. It has just been fairly new since I got She. But yes, I would say that it was a pure intention, I put it to the universe and said, I want a role that everybody would connect with. So everybody would probably at some point, go through these emotions that character is going through. So automatically they have experienced personal touch to the character, which is their own experience. Because everybody goes through something like my character Bhumi has gone through, at some point, say, mainly women. But men also watch them go through this so they also connect. And, that was pure intention while I was mentally thinking, I want to do something that will be a character with layers. And there should be a time to tell that story, which is what I think I got, in ‘She’. So I am extremely lucky, blessed, and grateful. And, of course, I still don't get it, how Imtiaz Sir put his faith in me. Of course, we did tests and he saw in the audition, and he also took my tests. He's a veteran, he's been there for so many years, probably he knew I could pull it off. But, I didn't really know how deep this is going to take me, the character is going to take me and you know, how many layers are there until I read the script. Secondly, I remember Prakash Sir (Prakash Jha) calling me once when he watched the series, and he said, “You're going to give sleepless nights to many of the actresses, so be prepared.” I was so happy because I said wow, that's such a big compliment. So yeah, I think it's pure manifestation.

Were there any trepidations on your end or the makers, that you wouldn’t be able to carry it off?

No. I think personally, I believe to flow with everything that happens to me in life, including my craft, including the art that I truly worship. So, I was just flowing with it, there's nothing to be nervous about. I feel once you have bagged a part, just flow with it and know that you have it within you somewhere, that's why it's coming to you. So I completely believe in that. Maybe I had the capacity or the capability to perform it and that is why it fell in my lap. And, I give myself that kind of freedom to believe in myself at that point of time. Otherwise, you get scared and then you get nervous and then you don't know which direction you're going. Rather enjoy it and perform it to the best of one's capacity.I tried doing that. And I think the makers also, we all a. had the same energy - Imtiaz Sir, Arif Sir, Amit Roy, even Sampath for that matter. Everybody who's there. We were living it, enjoying it and with every emotion, Bhumi was hitting, feeling bad, falling, standing up with courage again, we all were doing it at that moment together.

There is a lot of emotional and physical violence in the series and in your character. Was it tough to be battered by the role day after day on the sets? What did you do to unwind?

Yes, there was a lot intensity this season. I remember once I fell off a chair and hurt my head, and my first instinct was, is the shot, okay, because I didn't want to do it again. I was just bothered about the shot. "Shot mil gaya kya?" is what I asked. And everybody was trying to make sure I was alright. Because nobody likes physical violence. Emotional, of course, to back it up even worse, because it makes you feel lost and it does really hit your soul at one point. So it was very tough. How did I unwind? Well, I believe in meditation. So I come back home and I do my one hour of meditation that I follow. It's a quantum science meditation that I follow, because you have to go back on set the next day, and it's all-night shifts. So, I made it a point to not miss out on that no matter how tired I am. Sometimes I sing but you don't get that chance or time during the shoot. So I got into a routine, like almost a box. I would go shoot, come back, meditate, get up, bathe, and again go. So that's what helped me unwind because it got me to my real world, not the materialistic world or the film world, the real self, where you know your breath and your heartbeat, that world.

The one factor that makes this role stand out is the sexual tension. How did you shoot the non-sugar-coated sexual sequences?

Well, for me, it's just the state of mind of the character. So if it's sexual tension, or if it's physical tension, or if they're sexual scenes, I don't really bifurcate them like that, I look at it as a scene. So one scene at a time, one moment at a time. And I just went ahead with one thought that is written, which is she empowers herself, or she rather gets empowered by realising her sexuality. So when you say, that she's getting power from realising who she is, her own sexuality, then it doesn't matter what is happening on the outside. On the outside is just a by-product of her mind, a by-product of what she's living in her day-to-day life. So the sexual scenes actually don't become sexual scenes, they become like, a journey or rather, another stone on the journey that she's unturning, turning, unturning, turning again. So yeah, these are characters like we all live our lives and on our journey, we meet so many people, but we have a certain goal towards probably going ahead in our journey. Like that she has a goal which she doesn't know about and it is backed by her sexuality. Her realisation of sexuality I would say.. So, now when you suppress something so much, for example, there are too many atoms coming together and they are waiting, vibrating at a very high frequency. So with Bhumi also it is pretty much the same thing. She has been suppressed for so long. So now, everything that's coming in her way is giving her power. And as you've seen the series now, in the second series, of where she eventually reaches with all this because it's mayhem, it's chaos. And, there is then eventually, the calmness in the chaos. So, I think this is how I look at Bhumi's journey.

Do you feel the OTT and Netflix give you a chance to do things on camera that cinema may not?

Well, OTT and Cinema, these questions I often answer and I wonder to myself that what is the difference between  OTT and  cinem? I really don’t think there is any difference very honestly, I feel the script is the hero, the maker is the parent of that script, so he knows what he is making because everything takes so much effort, time, thinking, especially a script like She. A lot of thinking going on, there’s a lot of minute detailing, meticulously they have been characterised and written so well that for an actor like me, it becomes such an enjoyable, sumptuous, journey to feel every single moment that is written and then add of course my craft, as in whatever I have learned, and just polish it maybe a little bit more, according to me. But I really don’t see a difference because I watched Kate Winslet in Mare of Eastwood and at that same time, I was watching her in The Reader, so these are films and this is OTT, mujhe toh koi farak nahi nazar aata hai (I don’t see any difference). One is just playing a  character whether it is  OTT or cinema. Yes, if you ask me to compare television with cinema, there might be a difference. On Netflix millions are watching you in LA, France, Spain, in all different places and thanks to social media also, they connect with you, they know you, which is a very big blessing. So, I really don’t think there’s any difference for me. It’s just the script, it’s just the part and I am very happy that I got something like this to play, which is on my shoulders, so it also challenges me as an actor. Let’s see if I can even perform to this level, so I think the parts are written and it’s a very good time for actors, writers, directors and platforms like Netflix boosting us and taking these stories forward because it’s time that things change, I think.

What are your plans beyond She?

Well, right now my plans are for She but beyond that, I think I am going to explore another set of emotions of life. I have done another show called Aashram which has again some dark spaces, the reality of how things exist, and I think I will want to do romance after this. It’ll be a light moment for me, it’ll be great and I think I will also get a little bit of breather or maybe some really good drama which has again scope to perform. But, romance primarily is something I really want to try , you never know what happens ahead life. I don’t think I can enjoy anything as much as I have enjoyed performing ‘She’, but, romance is something I am looking forward to doing now and maybe comedy, rom-com kind of thing. Romantic comedy also, it’ll be nice.

 Having played such an unconventional role so early in your career do you look forward to running around trees in Hindi films?

Well, yeah, why not? Let’s run around trees in Hindi films, why not? I have not primarily grown up on it because I was a runner, an athlete for about six-seven years since my childhood, so most of my time was in training, which was spent in training but, my dad was a very big fan of films and theatre. So yes, I would love to run around trees, wear sarees and do all of that. I have done it in one Tamil film, just one film that I did but I would love to do that because I think, entertainment is of all types. It can entertain you through a dark space, it can entertain you through a light moment, through running around trees, through singing songs in the rain. I still watch all the old songs, I love the song Mujhe jaan na kaho meri jaan in the film Anubhav so even there, there is like, so much performance, the soft side of a woman. So, I would love to run around trees and I would love to plant trees also at the same time ( laughs).

What would you say is your biggest takeaway from She and She 2?

I think from ‘She’ Season 1, my biggest takeaway was overcoming the fear and realisation. A very big revelation that happens to Bhumika like you must have seen in the last scene where she almost talks to herself becoming almost like a phoenix is coming out, so her revelation was the first season’s takeaway for me and in second season, I would say flowing with life, with courage and patience is the biggest takeaway for me. Because Bhumi doesn’t have plans. Just flow with life and I think that is a very very big takeaway for me and I think that will be a very big takeaway for every single person - the audiences, whoever watches it. You go ahead with courage and patience and life has its own route for you then.

 Are you prepping for Season 3?

At the moment we are just taking in the viewers reactions and living in the moment of the success of She 2. Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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