Actor Sakshi Agarwal will make her first silver screen appearance this year in Tamil with Kamaraj Vel’s anthology film, Adharma Kadhaigal, which revolves around the thirst for revenge of four individuals with different stories. With Adharma Kadhaigal being her third anthology in her decade-long career, Sakshi has an interesting take on the format. She says, “Not that this is my favourite format of storytelling; I like taking up the challenge of playing a character who just has 30 minutes to create an impression among the audience.
In a web series or a film, a character takes ample time to develop or reach its peak. But I like the make-it-or-break-it challenge thrown by anthologies.” She further elaborates on her point by calling anthologies a “no-nonsense format.
” On whether the performance of other stories in the anthology affects the overall performance of the film, the actor says, “That’s true, my portion with Vetri was shot at last after the other parts were canned. I didn’t know the other stories, but with the kind of pitch I got from Kamaraj, I was confident he would do a neat job with other stories as well. With anthologies, you have to take a leap of faith.
At the end of the day, I should focus on my character rather than worrying about how the other stories will be received.” She then adds, “Now that I have watched the film fully, I can say confidently that the director has done justice to the faith I had in him.” When asked if the character takes precedence over the story while choosing a film, Sakshi says, “Over the years, I focused on landing only meatier roles irrespective of the kind of story.
It dawned on me that a character’s reach will be wider only if the story works. I realised it last year when Bagheera was released. People had good things to say about my character, but the film didn’t do that well.
So that was when I went back to the drawing room and decided to lay emphasis on the story as well.” The actor then gets candid about how this changed the way she listens to narrations. “I don’t just hear stories these days, I question the director about the story and my character.
This is because filmmakers make films from their experiences or something they’ve heard of. If the reasoning behind ‘why this story?’ convinces me, I agree to do it,” says Sakshi. Talking about her co-star Vetri, who has done his own share of intense roles, Sakshi feels thankful that she didn’t have to play the catch-up game.
She says, “Having an interesting body of work, he comes to the sets prepared. The director just has to tell him what scene is going to be filmed. I learnt about the importance of doing homework from him.
A confident and well-prepared co-star is a good co-star.” Assuring that Adharma Kadhaigal will have a unique take on revenge, Sakshi hopes that this film will help her land more intense roles in the future. Talking about her future projects, Sakshi says she has completed filming for two Malayalam films, both with Ashkkar Soudaan in the lead.
“Both films show progressive female characters. I also have a film in Kannada, in which I play a very different and grounded character. The film is produced by Kantara’s music composer, Ajaneeth Loknath, along with fellow composer, CR Bobby, who is making his directorial debut with the film.
I am looking forward to all these projects,” she signs off..
