It’s my dream to not be slotted into a particular kind of role: Amruta Subhash

Actor Amruta Subhash had an interesting 2021 with two releases. In web series Bombay Begums, she played a bar dancer. Dhamaka, which released last month, saw her essaying the part of a no nonsense news editor. “I’m very grateful. It has always been my dream to not be slotted into a particular kind of role. Actors want to do a lot of different things but it depends on many factors,” she says.

Dhamaka, particularly, was a tough act for Subhash as it required her to tread into unknown territory. She shares, “I credit my casting director Abhimanyu Ray for thinking out of the box and visualising me as Ankita (her character in the film). I was excited because her mind, look and body language are completely different from mine. I was so tempted to play her. Unlike my other roles, I had no idea where she came from. I didn’t know her at all.”

But the 42-year-old actor adds that she was “pleasantly surprised” during the look test after glamming up in the film for the first time. “I didn’t want to wear a saree because I wore sarees in many films but when I draped one on the insistence of Theia Tekchandaney (stylist), it added more weightage to my character,” she says, asserting that look tests are extremely important to her as they help her “grasp the first note about a character” and that’s why she didn’t hesitate when asked to chop her hair short by hair stylist Shefali Shetty.

While many referred to her character in the film as that of a villain, Subhash reveals that she wants to play an out-and-out antagonist someday. “Even when playing a villain, I’ll keep her as human as possible. Every human being has reasons for the way they behave but we tend to look at their actions and not their journeys. Right and wrong is relative. I might not think like a character, but I don’t judge her by comparing her to my values,” she ends.