Renée Sen : I’m not getting into acting to gain social media followers

In an exclusive interaction with OTTPlay, Renée Sen shares her first experience on the set of her short film Suttabaazi, her mother Sushmita Sen’s reaction to the script, the advice she received from her and more...,

When Suttabaazi premiered on Bandra Film Festival's YouTube channel, audiences were delighted to see Renée Sen make her acting debut. She plays the role of Diya, a teenager who is on the edge of rebelling in every interaction she has with her parents. What troubles her the most is her parents being unable to understand her life as a social media influencer. Her second, perhaps more important worry, is her having to tiptoe around her parents to keep her habit of smoking under the wraps. As a non-smoker who does not have an attachment to social media, Renée brings Diya to life in the most captivating way possible. She mutes her own bubbly self to bring out a special sullen side of Diya that makes Suttabaazi an excellent debut for her.

Renée, who found her passion in acting by observing her mother Sushmita Sen enchant Bollywood, is enthusiastic about turning acting into her full-time profession. She’s motivated, beautifully unreserved and warm - the opposite of what Diya is till she finds her own mother smoking on the terrace, riddled with stress about wanting to start her own tuition classes. It is now that Diya bonds with her mother over a smoke and the film ends on a note of better understanding between two women who are trying to figure their lives out.

Here are excerpts of OTTplay’s exclusive conversation with Renée about her future plans, her first time on set, the influence her mother has had on her, and more:,

Suttabaazi was featured on Bandra Film Festival’s YouTube channel. How are you dealing with this exposure as a debutant?

For my film to be screened on the Bandra Film Festival YouTube channel and the love that we are receiving is amazing. All the efforts, all the fights that happened - “light theek nahi hai, acting sahi se karo, kapde theek karo” (the lighting is not okay, act properly, fix your clothes) - it's all worth it at the end of the day. I’m so happy that Bandra Film Festival is screening my film on their channel since they have such good content. For our film to be a part of it is just so special. It makes me feel like we’re doing something right. I’m really happy! When you want to do something for so long and then you finally get the opportunity, you give it your thousand percent. You have this one opportunity, you make the most of it.

What are these fights that happened and what were the challenges you faced on set as somebody who was just starting her career?

The first challenge was that we were shooting in the lockdown. It was shot on the 3rd and 4th of October - I remember the dates and can even tell you the shift timings! I love acting, I have a healthy obsession with it and I remember everything. The first challenge was of course to keep everyone’s safety in mind. We shot the film in two days only, so things like changing from one outfit to the other were also tricky.

We shot with a very young team, so there was a lot of excitement and nervousness too. Everyone had more experience than me on set since I’m just starting out. Being my first film, they really wanted to make it a good one. So just the whole cast and crew pushing everyone to give their best was a driving force for us. I shot throughout the night too. The challenge here for me was to wake up at 6:30am after having shot till 4am last night and still look fresh. It takes a lot to be an actor and I truly realized that. You can really mess up if you’re not clued in so it’s very important to not let a bad day affect your performance. You shouldn’t get too happy also, because even that throws your performance off.

You and your character Diya seem to be very different people. She’s rebellious and trying to make it big on social media - why did you decide to take this character up, knowing she’s so different from you?

The character I play and the person I am should be different- why would I want to play someone like me? It’s boring! So the fact that we’re so different attracted me to her. She smokes, I don’t. She’s obsessed with social media and I’m not. I don’t even like social media. I believe that everyone is so happy on social media and they only put out the good parts. If someone really needs to reach out, they’re going to pick up the phone and call. That’s the kind of person I am too. I feel like social media is a little bit misleading that way. I was very clear that I’m not getting into acting to gain social media followers. All my social media traction is a byproduct of my projects as an actor. My job is solely to act. If people love my acting, they’ll find themselves interested in my social media. I’m logged out of Instagram right now too and I delete the app too sometimes. I was interested in it when the app came out but then I just got used to it and the adrenaline is gone. That way, Diya and I are poles apart.

I have rebelled though! But just like the character, I just have a discussion about my mom and we come to a mutual decision. Sneaking out and going to buy cigarettes though? No, no, no! Even the family she comes from - her father is not doing so well in his business. So I had to really understand these dynamics before enacting Diya.

Also, I had to tap into my younger self as Diya. I’m 21 and Diya is 18. So I had to understand what being an 18 year old was like and that was fun. I remember what I was like at that age and had to bring it back for the film.

Your mother must have been ecstatic about your debut. Did she act like a guide for you throughout your first steps into acting and give you any tips?

So when I got the script, I thought it was just meant for me to read and give Kabeer (Khurana) my suggestions. Then he said I want you to act in this film. I thought he was kidding and told him, “Listen, it's midnight. Please don’t make these jokes with me.” Then he said he’s serious! I have this thing that I do. If I’m watching a movie, I’ll think I’m in it. If the character is running on a train, I feel like I’m also running on the train with them. If I’m watching an interview, I start imagining what I would have said. I know it’s a little crazy and funny but I really have done it.

I finally went to mom with the script and told her that I loved it. Then I broke it to her that I will have to smoke in the film. I thought she would say let's discuss it and think about it. But then she said, “If you’re okay with it, go ahead.” And I was shocked! She knows that as an actor, you’ll have to do lots of different things that aren’t a reflection of who you are. I think that is the benefit of you doing the same thing as your parents since they’re more open and understanding. So I was really happy because as a mom, seeing your daughter smoke on screen might not be the most ideal. But she has always been supportive. The advice she gave me is to be honest with the camera. Everything she tells me is from her experience, what I do with it is up to me.

By the end of the shoot though, I was gasping for oxygen. I just needed fresh air. And I smelt like smoke too - it was so not nice! And smoking in a bathroom for I don’t know how many takes? It was exhausting.

You clearly love acting and want to continue doing this. What are your future plans and what genres are you looking forward to exploring?

I want to switch to acting full time. I am aware of my contemporaries and all that they are achieving. So the bar is set extremely high. I feel like I need to work so much harder. I am working on my skills but in the future, I definitely want to do feature films. I would love to do an action movie. It’ll be so fun - learning to do my own stunts too. I want to do an action movie and hopefully do all the stunts by myself at least once.

Have you ever considered taking up other facets of this industry like direction or scriptwriting?

I think you need to learn about whatever profession you’re going to take up. You need to train in it. I hadn’t learnt acting, I didn't go to acting school or anything. My training was given to me by my coach Prateek Kothari sir. Even if I want to get into direction or scriptwriting, I’ll have to learn the basics of it. I have tried script writing - I wrote one page and then it was over! So for now, my focus is definitely acting. Let’s see how it works out in the future. I’ve left the option very open and I’d love to try. I already sing and dance so that takes up a lot of my creative juices already. As a director, I’ll direct a shot and then end up acting in it myself. So I really don’t know!,

A lot of audiences have been able to watch Suttabaazi ever since it premiered on Bandra Film Festival’s YouTube Channel. How has your reaction to all the reviews been?

All of this is very new to me. But I am being level-headed. Even if I read something, I’ll feel momentarily happy or accept the learning from it. I’ll absorb the good, remember what I need to work on and then move on. I don’t really look for reviews since I’m not active on social media. Most of the time, my friends are the ones updating me about what has come out.

I haven’t spoken about Suttabaazi’s after its release till now. I was not expecting so many people to see it at all. And the love and affection I’m receiving is so heartwarming and more than anything, it's encouraging. The credit goes to my onscreen parents and Kabeer for trusting me with such known actors. I was never treated like I don’t know something. They always gave me love and respect. They took my opinions and my suggestions into consideration. So it was a very very wholesome experience and I'm just very happy and grateful for the love but I cannot allow all of this to get to my head. That is important to me - more than anything.

With social media it's so easy for us to get carried away. It's the human mind, you know, someone says something nice and you become happy, then someone says something that you don't want to listen to - you'll feel sad. That's why I don't look at it. My nature is... I absorb a lot, it affects me so I keep out of it.

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