’90 percent of an actor’s job is to wait’: Angira Dhar

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Dhar’s girl-next-door role in India’s first Netflix original movie, Love Per Square Foot, had a tenderness about it which impressed the audience. Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo, meanwhile, finds her at  the other end of the spectrum, as she essays Kajal – a fiery and gutsy woman who is part of a drug business. However, binding both is her underlying vulnerability that made both characters believable and real.

Talking about the process of prepping for a complex and layered character like Kajal, Dhar says, “I had to get into the deepest, darkest parts of my heart to bring out the greyness that defined Kajal. Apart from that, there were a lot of physical changes that I went through; I spent hours in the gym. I had to change my lifestyle, my sleeping pattern, the kind of food I was eating at that time. But I enjoyed it so much that I have continued to do so. I think I will never let it go. For the first time, I have actually experienced such a physical transformation. Then the dialect was very intricately created for every character. It was a mix of many dialects and languages. We had a dialect coach and we’d rehearse with him rigorously for hours on stretch. ”

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Dhar, who had to audition to get the role, was initially cast for Bijlee’s character, the eldest sister-in-law of the family but insisted on auditioning for Kajal as she connected with her more.

Mumbai-bred with Kashmiri roots, Dhar never thought of acting as her career plan, it was just an ‘accident’, or, in hindsight, she says, “maybe I always manifested it but coming from non-filmy background I considered it out of reach”. Starting out as an assistant director, Dhar was recommended for ads by acquaintances and it was the Cadbury ad which made casting directors and producers take notice of her. Eventually, she was signed up for YRF’s Youtube series, Bang Baaja Baaraat (2015) with Ali Fazal. “Acting happened along the way. I used to be in the production or filmmaking side of things and built contacts who insisted that I start auditioning.”

However, she had to wait for three years before her first feature film, Love Per Square Foot, released. “Good things don’t come easy. You have to really wait it out,” she shrugs. “I feel as an actor you have to be extremely patient. 90% of an actor’s job is actually to wait.”

For the most part, the reason behind the limited number of work that she has done, she admits, is her selective attitude. “Sometimes you don’t align creatively on a lot of things. Thus, don’t end up doing such projects. When I am working on a project, I’d give it my everything so much so that it takes a toll on my mental space. So I want to do things where I am 100% in. I don’t want to be a part of something half baked. Either I am in or I am out,” Dhar concludes.