Kirti Kulhari, who will soon be seen in Vipul Amrutlal Shah and Mozez Singh’s medical thriller Human, is glad that OTT has raised the bar for her and women in general. The show will begin streaming from January 14. The Four More Shots Please! actress opens up about playing intense roles, keeping her personal life guarded, and more. Excerpts:
Your roles in Criminal Justice 2, Four More Shots Please! and even in Human now are really mentally exhausting. How do you deal with it?
I think this very much explains that why I don’t do more work, I genuinely can’t. One project takes so much out of you. It’s not about emotionally so much since I have learned to detach myself from my characters and don’t take them back home. Being an actor, it’s a very physical process which is why I need breaks in between what I do. I am not here for popularity, I do my job, and I do it well. When you are appreciated for your creativity, you won’t feel tired.
As an audience, people see your roles with a certain kind of consciousness from you as an actor, your take?
People will be emotionally burdened after seeing me in Human (laughs). I truly feel that we as humans are hard-nuts to crack. While many of us are mentally blocked to make many conversations and are uncomfortable, my weapon as an actor is my emotions. I can open your heart and shut your mind with the emotions I carry. Empathy is a strong emotion; it opens doorways for you.
A still from Human |
What’s your take as a female actor on how the OTT influx has changed the game for female actors in a male-dominated industry?
It’s been three years since Uri: The Surgical Strike, but because I wasn’t that popular back then, I was not included in the marketing of the film. I felt Seerat Kaur was very crucial for the film, but I know how the game works. OTT has clearly upped my game. Probably I would not have thought about this as well. An overhauling of the entire industry was a long due.
While you choose such apt scripts, writers have played a pivotal role in shaping them. With Human, what was your character approach?Human is one of the best scripts I have ever read, and I was pleasantly surprised when I read the first few episodes when Vipul sent them. There was so much happening in every scene, the emotional graphs. It was like madness on paper. I was so overwhelmed with what my character Saira is. My only concern was whether we could translate all of it on screen. When I sat with my writers Ishani (Banerjee) and Mozez for my prep, they were prepared, and their research was thorough. Also, they had clarity on every character.
How do you keep your privacy intact, you work and then hibernate?This is who I am, and this is the way I like to operate. I choose what makes me happy. Being myself, living my life away from the hustle-bustle of the industry.
