Amrita Rao Gets Into The Skin of Kamala!
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Actresses only dream of working with a director like Shyam Benegal and Amrita has got lucky enough to bag a vital role in Benegal’s first comedy ever – Welcome To Sajjanpur.
I am super duper excited [laughs]. Being a part of a Shyam Benegal movie is a high point for me. He is somebody who is liked and revered by everyone in my community. In fact, not many people know that we belong to the same community and we speak the same language (Konkani). So, people like Girish Karnad, Ananth Nag and Shyam Benegal have always been looked up to.
Then, of course, I saw Zubeidaa when I was studying and it is one I still count among my favourite films. So when Shyamji called me for this role, I didn`t ask him any questions—I just said yes to the film. Because I so wanted to be on board under his direction.
“I play the character of Kamala in the film”, she explains. She is illiterate and cannot read or write. She plays a potter and it`s a very rustic, earthy, rural Indian character. Sajjanpur is her world, she cannot see beyond it because she has never ventured out,” says Amrita.
And Amrita has worked quite hard to get into the skin of her character. She dressed down as a simple village belle in ghagra cholis, her character had to look darker so she wore makeup that would make her look darker than she is, she also had to learn pottery because her character makes pottery for a living. And adding another feat to this long list is that Amrita along with other actors tried hard to learn the Bagelkhandi dialect of Hindi.
We hope this movie takes Amrita to new heights as an actress.
