PremiumAnupriya Goenka on embracing diversity in filmmaking styles from Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmaavat to Milan Luthria's Sultan of Delhi | Exclusive
In an exclusive interview with OTTplay, Anupriya Goenka reflected on the challenges and learning experiences in portraying diverse characters.
Last Updated: 10.54 AM, Oct 13, 2023
Anupriya Goenka is seen as a femme fatale Shankari in the latest Disney+ Hotstar series, Sultan of Delhi, created by Milan Luthria. The actor is someone who, over a decade of her acting career, has worked with prolific filmmakers including Sanjay Leela Bhansali in Padmaavat, Siddharth Anand in War, and Ali Abbas Zafar in Tiger Zinda Hai. During an exclusive interaction with OTTplay, Anupriya was asked if she had any preconceived notions about the style of filmmaking of these leading filmmakers before getting on to the set.
Anupriya's approach to filmmaking styles:
The actor told us, "I'm not really, and I don't think it's specific to the filmmaker more than, you know, the genre. So let's suppose I say this because, for War, I remember, of course, that Siddharth has a certain way of filmmaking, but I realised that after you are on the set with them, after one or two days of shooting, that's a more firsthand experience, and you understand each other, you understand language, and you have communication much better, and you form camaraderie. I think it's a lot of that."
Working with Sanjay Leela Bhansali in Padmaavat:
About being on the set of an SLB film, Anupriya revealed, "But with Sanjay sir, I have always loved his films. Also, I know his style of filmmaking, but I would not be able to really gauge it or preconceive it before I'm onset. To give them credit, they are all very artistic people; you can never just chart a course for them, right? It's about two artists communicating together, and that's a very unique way for each and every person. Irrespective of anything else, it's about two people. When they form something together and create a character and talk and discuss, it's going to be different for every person."
Calling herself a realistic kind of actor, the Asur actor went on to say, "I wouldn't say that I used to conduct or conceive myself in a certain way on the set because of how the filmmaker has done his previous films. Specific to the role of the film and the kind of films the filmmaker has made before. One can only understand the sur of the film. I think that's important. So, like, I'm a very realistic kind of actor; I imagine and generally approach my characters in a very natural manner. But I have grown as an actor, and I understand that certain performances need a certain class, certain style, and certain enigma; you can't just do it naturally all the time."
Role in Siddharth Anand's War:
Talking about delving into her role of War, Anupriya added, "So in a film like War, it is a very interesting, engaging story. It's an action film, plus it has a lot of style, and you need to put your character in that space. So for me, the challenge was to make it realistic as well as fit into the gamut of things in the world."
In Padmaavat, the actor was seen as Rani Naagmati, the first wife of Raja Rawal Ratan Singh, played by Shahid Kapoor. Sharing details about how she got into that role, Anupriya said, "I can't be just Anupriya while playing Naagmati. I have to remember that I'm a 13th-century Rani, and on top of that, I have to understand that when Sanjay Sir shoots, when you do the camera angles that he's using, he's using the tone of body language that he wants to use to portray the emotions that he wants to portray in his actors, which you get to understand."
"I think it's a very intuitive process; it's not something that you decide before going on; at least I don't. It's just something that keeps happening within, and when you speak to the director and you correspond with him about it while acting in the amount that is formulated over a period of time, I always understood them better while I was working with them," she added.
Sultan of Delhi and Milan Luthria's vision:
While talking about being a part of Milan Luthria's world, Anupriya shared details, stating, "With Milan Sir, again, I've always been fond of his work. The Dirty Picture still remains one of my favourite films. Again, he has a style that he also has a lot of shades of. At the same point in time, it's Sultan of Delhi, Shankari, and Milan Sir that I was concentrating on. It wasn't a certain style of filmmaking; what the script says and how the space is being shown in the series are more important. So we understood that yeah, we are trying to bring 70 mm to OTT; that's the big USP of the show, and Milan Sir is going to make it large and big and go all out and create a new era; make it very, with their punch lines all over the place and hard-hitting characters and dialogues. It was a different experience to be able to do them. As an actor, I really enjoyed it because, generally, I'm used to more conversational and realistic sorts of characters. So they're that different style that comes around, and I loved doing that because I learned something new."
All episodes of Sultan of Delhi are currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.