When you walk in the company of giants, you tend to mimic their gait. A dream debut with Aamir Khan in Dangal pushed Sanya Malhotra to seek perfection. Much like her mentor, she has made a career out of seeking content-centric films. Whether it's Badhaai Ho, Pataakha, Photograph, Ludo, Pagglait, Meenakshi Sundareshwar, Love Hostel or her recent release, Hit : The First Case, she has wowed the audience with her natural performance. She wasn’t mere eye candy in these films but played characters who were an integral part of the project. Dangal taught her the importance of preparation. “During Dangal we were really made to challenge ourselves. That basically laid a foundation for me as an actor because I saw how appreciative people were when the film got released. Now, whenever I approach a character, even if it does not require any physical training like Dangal, I like to put in the same amount of handwork for it. It's been five years and it's been a dreamlike journey for me.”
Having worked with a clutch of talented filmmakers such as Vishal Bhardwaj, Nitesh Tiwari, and Anurag Basu, she has learnt much from the master storytellers. Expressing her gratitude for the same, she shares, “I have been lucky to have worked with such directors since I am an actor with no training. For example, Chhutki from Pataakha was completely different from me as a person. She was so spiteful and loud that I told Vishal ji I couldn’t see myself in her. He said that he could see me pulling off the role nicely and advised me to let go of my inhibitions. That gave me confidence as an actor. If I could do a character like Chhutki, there is nothing that I can’t do.” She says an actor should stay away from being stereotyped and choose roles that make her uncomfortable. “Otherwise how would you grow?” She questions. “You’ll only do things that come easily to you and inhibit your growth.” Considering her varied filmography, she mentions how a talk with Ayushmann Khurrana has helped her focus on her goals. “So when I asked him, ‘What’s your secret?’, he said, ‘Whenever I am getting a narration, I listen to it as an audience’, and that is such a good point!” she exclaims.
Like Ayushmann, Sanya likes to play it by the ear, thinking of herself as a viewer first while choosing a role. She’s not looking at big box-office numbers at this point and is only thinking of bettering her craft. She goes for what excites her as an actor. “I go with what drives me creatively. I know these are things that one should keep in mind, box-office success and all, but I have not gotten into it. Maybe a few years more and I will start thinking about it but for now, I pick a character or a film purely based on how excited I am about it.”
She has tasted success both with traditional releases and with OTT films and sees herself as a performer who has to give her 100 per cent to every project. She has grown up watching films on the big screen and says that the magic of the big screen will never die. “We escape into another world when we’re sitting in the dark in a packed theatre, experiencing things with a mass of people. We share the laughter, the tears, claps, whistles. What OTT has done is that it has widened the scale of the industry. There’s more work for the industry. People are choosing to invest in stories and not just rely on stars to draw in the crowds. OTT has brought in a balance the industry sorely needed,” she reasons.
Not many people know that Photograph, directed by Ritesh Batra, was actually her second film after Dangal. We often hear that it’s hard for actors to let go of their characters. In fact, actors spend years perfecting that off button. That was the case with Sanya as well. She played an introverted character, Miloni, in Photograph and it was hard for her to come out of it. “Ritesh Batra moulded me in such a way that I started believing I was Miloni in real life as well,” she reveals. “That’s why the performance looked so real.
It stayed with me for a good four-five months till the time I did Pataakha. Playing Chhutki really helped me come out of it. When you are playing a character your boundaries get blurred at times and you start inducing emotions and making up these scenarios in your mind which can play with your subconscious,” she states. In Love Hostel, there was a scene where she had to react to someone getting shot in front of her. She had no reference point for that and hence requested her fellow actors to keep it as real as possible. “They did it so perfectly that the scene kept playing in my mind. I kept seeing someone dying in front of me. I was in touch with my therapist throughout and she counselled me through the night for me to get out of that frame of mind. I take therapy and I catch myself whenever I am inducing these emotions and know that they are not mine, these are my character’s emotions that I am carrying back home.”
She talks unabashedly about mental health and how being a public figure comes with its downfalls. She was the sort who’d read every comment posted on her over the social media and was quite affected by them. Taking advice from seniors has helped her to veer away from it. “I was at a round table with other actors and I mentioned that I regularly read comments on social media and they all were shocked. They were like no you should not do it as it would affect your mental peace. Since every senior actor out there was saying the same thing, I took their advice. I have stopped reading comments. That has really helped me,” she reveals. Now, she has stopped heeding what people say about her and relies on positive criticism from family and friends to keep herself grounded.
She has worked with some of the best talents in the industry today, from Ayushmann Khurrana in Badhaai Ho to her last - Rajkummar Rao in Hit: The First Case. She has Sam Bahadur to look forward to next with Vicky Kaushal. Speaking of her co-stars she says, “Who doesn't want to work with Rajkummar Rao? He is amazing, a brilliant actor. I signed up for the movie it because I wanted to be on set and see what he does and how he does it. As soon as the camera starts, he transforms himself. That was really inspiring to see. As for Vikrant Massey, he too is an amazing actor to work with, he is brilliant.”
Having done all kinds of roles, she definitely wants to try her hand at doing an out and out comedy film. “I have done rom coms but I want to do proper slapstick as I suspect I would be good doing it. My forthcoming comedy, Kathal, is going to be one such film. I’m playing a policewoman who is on the lookout for a pair of stolen jackfruit."
Ask her who her competition is and she diplomatically names herself as being her only competition. She catches me rolling my eyes and defends her argument. She smiles,“I will change my answer and say I’ve risen above competing. I’m not in school anymore na, where you’re supposed to get better grades than your mates. I’m not even competing with myself. I used to dream of becoming an actor and I’m living my dream. It’s a dream, it isn’t a race." Well said.
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