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The ever popular Radhika Madan will be seen in a fresh avatar in the forthcoming ‘Angrezi Medium’ where she is playing a character who is the daughter of Irrfan Khan. The film is Madan’s third big screen outing after ‘Pataakha’ in 2018 and ‘Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota’ last year.

BizAsiaLive.com caught up with the actress ahead of the film’s release.

How much did you personally identify with your character?
Tarika is really, really different from me. The only thing which is common is that we are big time dreamers. It is my toughest character till date, so to crack this character I visited Udaipur. I hung out with 15-16 year-olds there, asked them to show me around, went to English medium schools, had kulhar chai with them or had whatever they used to have. I partied with them, asked them about what they think about studying abroad or making boyfriends, all of that.

But the main thing was when my acting coach told me that, Radhika, you’ll look 17, but your eyes will give away that you are 24 because of the experiences that you’ve had in your life. So I was like, how do I let go of the experiences of my life? This is insane! In this process I just discovered veganism, which really helped in making my thought process a bit more unadulterated. Plus, I was observing these girls a lot. I was hanging out with them, observing how they talk, how they speak in terms of the tonality. Just seeing the world with these pair of eyes where everything is happening for the first time. I’ve been to London, but how would Tarika feel when she visits the London airport for the first time or steps outside of the airport? All of that was really gruesome training, I feel.

As ‘Angrezi Medium’ nears release, what are you most looking forward to the audience seeing in terms of your performance?
What I really want to do is offer my audience a new flavour of me with every project of mine. ‘Pataakha’ (2018) is different from ‘Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota’ (2019). ‘Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota’ is different from ‘Angrezi Medium’. ‘Shiddat’, which I have just winded up, is really different from ‘Angrezi Medium’. So I just want to offer them a different flavour of mine. I want to surprise them with every project of mine. I want to tell them that this is going to be different from whatever they’ve seen of me before. I just want to entertain them as much as I can.

Did you ever find yourself pinching yourself on set as you share the screen with such greats?
There’s this thing with me that when a thing is happening at that point in time, it doesn’t hit me. It hits me after a while. The same thing happened with me during ‘Pataakha’. I realised it after two-three months that I’ve worked with THE Vishal Bhardwaj. So I think [it happened] this time also. It’s a good thing as well because I don’t feel intimidated at that point in time, so I can give my 100% to the character. But when I saw the trailer and the credits rolled in the last 10 seconds with Irrfan Khan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Radhika Madan, Dimple Kapadia, Deepak Dobriyal… they were just rolling in and I had tears in my eyes, because I realized that, God, I’m living my dream. It was such a special moment, such an overwhelming moment for me that I can’t even tell you. I’ve been crying from that point onwards after every release: the song, the promo. This month is going to be an overwhelming month for me.

What would you say was the biggest revelation in your personal journey shooting for ‘Angrezi Medium’?
Veganism, as I told you. It is something which really affected my thought process and the one thing that I’ve kept with myself. I’m still a vegan, it’s been a year and a half. This is something I’ve kept with me.

BizAsiaLive.com thanks Radhika Madan for talking to us. ‘Angrezi Medium’ releases on 13th March, directed by Homi Adajania.