Not Just Bollywood | Sarika on Sooraj Barjatya’s Uunchai: ‘Characters are now written keeping our age in mind'

In conversation with actress Sarika on the changing face of cinema and her preparation for her role in Uunchai. She believes it is the best time not only for actors, but audience, directors for everybody. Sarika is glad that now roles are made keeping her age in mind. She doesn’t need to look young or wear bizarre clothes like purple tops and red pants. She considers herself to be fortunate because of OTT actors of her age are still getting fantastic roles.

Edited Excerpts from the interview:

On the journey of Uunchai and trek up there?

It was the toughest and the most difficult trek. Everything else was easy as compared to the first part of the shoot. We actually went deep inside Nepal in different locations. It was tough, but it was fun too. At no point did I regret taking the trek. The whole unit was with us. It makes a lot of difference if you are enjoying the journey and not sulking.

On cinema changing…

The whole way we look and make cinema is changing. I never liked too much makeup so when I came back, I realized that makeup was not a big thing at all. So, I remember my makeup man, my hairdresser and I would go to the makeup room and have a cup of tea and come back and ask the director whether I am looking better. I had to play these games not to do makeup. But things were different when I came back.

My film after the comeback was Bheja Fry. I told them I am not going to apply makeup and they were very happy about it. I realised how close to reality your appearance should be in films now unlike yester years. It was an eighteen-year gap when I made a comeback and things completely changed. Then the films, whether it was Bheja Fry or the other films that I did after my comeback, you immediately understood that cinema has changed for the better. And today it has changed more and everyday it is changing for different reasons which are a contributing factor for cinema improving.

How much did OTT contribute to cinema changing?

It is the best time not only for actors, but audience, directors for everybody. First, multiplexes changed the culture. Technology came in and you had RRR and Bahubali. OTT totally liberated you from the pressure. No box-office, no first day collection and no stress and that brought brilliant actors to center stage which might have taken time or would have been difficult for newcomers to get established in the industry. I know of actors who have been struggling for years, but OTT gave them the chance.

I remember when people said that Modern Love Mumbai did well, I felt the main reason for its success was that it was so diverse. All the directors had taken a different take on love and its connection to Mumbai. I consider myself to be fortunate that because of OTT actors of my age are still getting fantastic roles.

Unchai has a different take and it is not about mountains, cold weather and chiffon saris. It doesn’t have very young actors who are talking about their love stories. What do you have to say about this change?

For Unchai the script that Sooraj Barjatya wrote was very close to his heart. I don’t think he had any plans to cast this actor and not that actor. It came from a very creative place where he wanted to write something and he wrote the script in a manner which was completely different from his previous films.

How are women’s roles changing?

There was a time that the moment you touched thirty your career was finished. Now roles are being written keeping your age in mind. Though the obsession with new faces is still there and that is not bad because there is a huge percentage of the audience out there who want to see fresh faces. But now, along with that we have roles for our age and we don’t need to hide our age. Now we are doing roles close to reality and we don’t need to wear red pants and purple tops. It was so bizarre those days. Now we don’t have a 56-year-old coming and saying, “Ma I have come back from college.” How long these heroes went to college for twenty years of their careers in Bollywood I remember. But now roles are changing and we have characters written keeping our age in mind. And most importantly there are no boxes, each and every character is important.

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