Harleen Sethi says she was reluctant to play young mother again in Bad Cop after Kohrra, felt she was being boxed: ‘I brought this up with Anurag Kashyap’

“So that was the first question, that am I being put in a box of a particular age group on screen? One never wants to get slotted like that. I even brought this up with Anurag and Aaradhana (the producer) and they said this fear is true that stereotyping happens a lot in Bollywood but my director Aditya Datt and Anurag said it’s changing and that’s no more the case.

“Aditya told me that he didn’t think of casting me because I played a young mother in Kohrra but because of the performance I did. So that makes you believe that that you’re being considered for the right reasons.

Produced by Fremantle India and directed by Aditya Datt, the Rensil D’Silva penned series is a reimagination of the original German drama of the same name. Before she read the script of all the eight episodes of Bad Cop, Hareleen said the “initial fear” was there, despite OTT breaking the age stereotype.

 

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“Before streamers came in, there was a shelf life for woman. Look at the age group today, actresses are being launched at 16-17, so clearly, I won’t be offered any college student part in a film. There are these realities but at the same time, you don’t want to be put in a box of young mother and get the industry to give you only those roles. It should be about the performance and what I bring to the table, instead of blindly stereotyping.”

Though Bad Cop makers didn’t look at her from the lens of stereotype, Harleen Sethi said Kohrra did shift the gaze through which people within the industry started seeing her as a performer, who was till then known to star in the Ekta Kapoor backed show Broken but Beautiful.

“Industry started looking at me differently after the show. Broken but Beautiful reached the masses but Kohrra reached to the important voices in the industry. Masses give you reach but it’s the industry which gives you the kind of work that you want to do. Those filmmakers watch certain films or certain type of series. They might have heard of your popular shows, but won’t have necessarily seen it, so they’re not sure what you’re capable of doing.

“So Kohrra gives you that kind of eyeballs and they start thinking about you, be confident about you. Mass pockets will give you following on Instagram and even that leads to some shows coming your way, but I’m not sure if those are the projects I want to be a part of. You need both, the masses and the industry.”

The actor says her challenge now is to feature in projects which carry forward her pursuit of prestige work, but without the baggage of her “serious” on-screen image,

“I’m also tired of doing serious stuff; crying, being angry and sad! I really want to learn newer emotions on screen, so I’d love to do a comedy or a musical. But no one is seeing me in that space. I do want them to see that side of me because I’m chill in life. I don’t why I have been made so serious, no-nonsense kind.”