Tara Sutaria in the weekend show:

Tara Sutaria is making her debut on OTT with an outright crime thriller – Apurva – directed by Nikhil Nagesh Bhatt. The Disney+Hotstar film is Tara’s first to ride entirely on her shoulders and once you see her in it, there’s no going back to the Tara of ‘Student of The Year 2’ or her other glamorous parts on screen. Here’s the actor completely unfiltered on The Weekend Show.

Tara Sutaria is best known for her performances in cotton candy cinema as ‘Student of the year 2‘, ‘Tadap‘ And ‘Heropanti 2‘. The actor has come out of her shell for the first time to try something that is usually considered quite risky at such an early stage of one’s career, especially in the acting world. But who can stop someone who says, “I’m on a mission”? The glamorous Bollywood diva is making her debut in the OTT space with a film on Disney+Hotstar titled ‘Apurva‘.

Directed by Nikhil Nagesh Bhatt, the film follows an ordinary girl who is kidnapped by a gang of local goons and sexually assaulted as her fiancé and other family members continue to search for her while praying for her well-being. Both Tara and Nagesh appear in ‘The Weekend Show‘ to discuss the challenges of a film like this and to explain the beautiful transition from a commercial typical Bollywood ‘star’ to a glamorous on-screen ‘actress’. This is Tara you have never seen before in and as Apurva. Excerpts from the interview:

VK: Welcome to the show, Tara. Apurva seems different and you would thank the universe right now for giving you this opportunity.

TS: I pinch myself and I thank everyone all the time. It feels surreal that it’s finally out and people can see it.

VK: Nikhil sir, you have a penchant for casting actors in the most unlikely roles, characters you can’t imagine playing. Not only did you imagine Tara playing this glamorous role, but also Rajpal Yadav playing a gangster on screen. And then in your other film ‘Kill’ you have a dancer, a comedian, Raghav Juyal who plays such an intense character. Where does this come from?

NNB: It comes from a: Early in my life I was a casting director. I learned there to look at people differently. And secondly, the credit goes entirely to the actors, because they are the ones who bring out these characters themselves. So Tara or Rajpal sir or Raghav in ‘Kill’ – they brought this out.

VK: Apurva is the story of survival. You are a fighter in this and I believe you cannot play a character like that if you don’t internalize it. How did you internalize this character?

TS: There are many different aspects of my life that I have tapped into, and I really believed this for many years, that I have a well-heeled emotional content within myself that I was finally able to tap into for a filmy ‘Apurva’ that put me in that space can be created. A lot of people don’t know that about me or haven’t seen me do that in the films I’ve made. But there’s always been this certain thing… growing up I was very shy and reserved, but lately I’ve toughened up. Maybe it’s because of the profession I have – it makes you very tough, aware, mindful and to some extent profound, which are the required qualities [to play] Apurva. So I have to take advantage of that and that’s unexpected of me. It’s interesting to me because I always knew it was there [in me]. I am very grateful to Nikhil sir and Murad sir for seeing that I had the opportunity to do something like this. I find the opportunity to play such a role more fun, challenging and easier than the roles that the public or media perceive as easier.

VK: What is the creative decision-making process when writing this role (Nikhil), and when you are offered a role like this (Tara) so early in your career – a role that breaks stereotypes for both of you?

NNB: It’s an opportunity. It’s about the producers – Disney and Murad sir had faith in me and the actors to pull off something like this. I wrote the script of Apurva in 2009 and it took me fourteen years to make a film.

VK: Didn’t anyone support you then?

NNB: At that time, they weren’t making female-oriented films for all kinds of reasons – there were satellite problems, there weren’t enough platforms for this kind of content – ​​it was very difficult. People these days are looking for good content. Someone can draw strength from this story – that’s the most important thing.

TS: I’m on a mission now. I now want to eradicate this term: ‘female-oriented films’, because where do we say ‘male films’? We don’t have to think of these as ‘niche films’. Every once in a while: ‘Chalo, let’s make a female-centric film in a year’ – it’s high time we really give proper equality to stories about women, and that needs to be normalized now.



VK: Tara, this is the first film where you really made it big. It is the first time that you are life-size on the poster. When you look back on your days – from when you started out as a child star – until today, when you look at this giant poster of yourself – what comes to mind?

TS: It’s different and it feels unusual. Before doing Hindi films, I did a lot of theater and concerts. Today, things feel the way they felt back then. There was equal attention, there was a lot of attention to what the actors were doing. Making a solo film is the most special thing. It happens very rarely in our industry for whatever reason but the aim is to change that by making films like ‘Apurva’ and by bringing in writers, directors and people like Nikhil sir, Murad sir and Disney+Hotstar have to bring about that change.

VK: I hope you don’t go back from here.

TS: Why would I? (laughs)

VK: You wrote this 14 years ago and now you see this story alive on the screen. What is the most challenging thing you encounter as a maker during this entire process?

NNB: The most challenging thing is also the best thing about the film. It’s about the thought process that needs to change. A section of society believes that women are weak – ‘Apurva’ changes that. It communicates that if you push a woman into a corner, she will bounce back and she will bounce back even in the face of crisis.

VK: And on her own…

NNB: Yes, and you better be prepared for that.

VK: Tara, I believe ‘Apurva’ aims to take women back to the time when they returned in their lives or when they fought against injustice. Has it ever happened to you that you probably decided to back down or say “no” to something or someone you disagreed with?

TS: There are a lot of unfair things coming our way in the industry. And in general too. It is up to us how we want to respond to that. I grew up in a household full of strong women and I don’t mean this in a preachy way, but honestly… I have a twin sister, my nani, my late dadi and my mother – they are all very strong and strong-willed women. They are not afraid to express their opinions. In the industry there are egos and norms that people tend to follow, and there is a lot of fear attached to it everywhere. That is the conditioning of society – to allow that fear to be installed in women. I believe that a woman’s mind is the best tool she can use to combat all this. That’s what Apurva uses here. I’ve had that. So if both boys and girls are taught to think strongly from an early age… sab soch me hain.

You know that we as women have all faced very strange trials and things in life, but it really depends on your response to these situations to determine where you go from here.

VK: Can we say that Tara Sutaria is fearless today?

TS: Today. Not so much a few years ago!

VK: Will ‘Apurva’ help women bring out that fearlessness in them?

NNB: I hope so. I hope we can bring that thought forward, because I believe there is nothing more than provoking a thought. When the thought crosses your mind, you can do anything.

VK: Thank you!