Radhika Apte amused at offers for glamorous roles
Radhika Apte has acted in many Bollywood and regional projects, coming��into the spotlight with��her 2011 release,��’Shor in the City’����with Tusshar Kapoor, after which she wasn’t seen in many Bollywood films. Apte surprised everyone with her role as Koko, in 2014’s blockbuster, ‘Badlapur.’ Now, she says that she finds it funny that she is being offered more glamorous roles.
Apte was born into��a Maharastian family from Pune,��who had no ties to Bollywood, but were quite liberal. It was what they heard about Bollywood that scared her family, but she feels that there’s good and bad everywhere, but you don’t get exploited in Bollywood unless you want to. Talking to Hindustan Times in a recent interview, she divulged, “Nobody from my family is from Bollywood, but they are extremely liberal. They never told me what to do. However, they were a bit scared initially�� because of what one usually hears (about the industry.) When I came here, I realized that it’s as good or bad as any other industry. Nobody exploits you unless you want to be exploited. As long as you know what you want to do, and you don’t want to ‘compromise’ on certain things, you don’t have to. I made some wonderful friends here and met some amazing people.”
Apte had to keep her role in ‘Badlapur’ under wraps. She had��to keep��mum even during the��promotions, which she feels, worked in her favour. “The first reaction I got was, ‘Oh we, didn’t know you were in the film.’ After Shor In The City (2011), I took a long break and started��studying dance in London, UK, so many people forgot about me. Even before Badlapur released, during the promotions, there wasn’t��much I��could reveal about my role. That worked as a plus point and it came as a twist in the��film. So, I guess that sort if helped.”
When she first came to Bollywood,��Apte knew that��didn’t have the features of a��mainstream Bollywood heroine. ‘Badlapur’ has changed that. “I knew that I don’t have a��mainstream Bollywood face. Until Badlapur, because of all the typecasting, nobody��could believe that��I could be offered glamorous parts in films. Now, I’m suddenly getting glamorous��roles, and that’s really funny. But I don’t want to stop doing regional��films. It’s not like I took up regional projects because I was sitting at home; I did them out of interest. And I’ll continue to do theatre too.”
Apte currently has��eight forthcoming releases in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and English.
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