Ishitta Arun was one of the major highlights of Karan Anshuman and Suparn Verma helmed action-crime series Rana Naidu. The Rana Daggubati and Venkatesh Daggubati starrer show that was released on March 10 has managed to create quite a wave owing to it’s bold and gritty portrayal of a plot mired in the underbelly of Bollywood.
Ishitta Arun who essayed Anna, a righteous physiotherapist was praised by many for her brillant performance.
In an exclusive interview with News18 Showsha, the talented daughter of actor and singer Ila Arun talked about her role in Rana Naidu, her on-screen chemistry with Sushant Singh, experience working with Rana Daggubati, her thoughts on the criticism towards the show, her future projects and much more.
Your character of Anna is Rana Naidu was definitely not an easy one to play. What went behind in terms of preparation for you to get into that skin? What was your approach as opposed to the approach of the director in the context of Anna?
My character in Rana Naidu was a character with many layers. And I say that because here is a woman who is well-educated, who is seemingly in control of things in her life but like many women, she’s hiding a troubled, abusive marriage. And yet you see her. She stands for all the right things. And then yet you see her initiate a relationship outside of that marriage. So it’s a flawed character in the sense that it is outside of what is legally right and wrong. However, she’s a real character led by circumstances and her heart. She is right in her point and she is ruled by a duty of righteousness. However, when it comes to the areas of the heart, she needs somebody who is tender and loving. Those boundaries are blurred. So you know it’s very easy to play a character like this, very black, very white. I had to understand in service of this character what she was going through and what was motivating her to behave in the way she was and what was her, where her mind was at. In order to prepare for this, I did do some rounds of the physiotherapist to see how that aspect is handled professionally. I also have been in touch with women who had abusive marriages. And just listening to their stories and understanding the grey areas that have been hidden, those are the aspects that I worked on the most.
My approach to Anna, I didn’t want to think of an approach till I was briefed by Karan and Suparn. They were extremely trusting as directors. They did not layer me with more information than what I would require. Suparn and Karan both trusted the instincts of the actors. So I remember when I was asking questions and trying to get into the skin of Anna, Suparn told me that trust your instincts. Just trust it. And so I think my theatre background helped me not kind of have something prepared for Anna. But go with the way they were leading me into it. The only preparation I did do was to see the original and understand what a physiotherapist work involves. And do my homework with regards to people in abusive marriages and familiarise with more women dealing with that. That’s how I approached Anna.
When you came across the part of Anna, how nervous, excited or intimidated were you? Were there any reservations on your end?
When I got the role of Anna, I was nervous, excited and intimidated. But that was a moment of that. As actors, we are in the service of the roles. And once, I had the sides with me and I had time to live the character, I had time to live with the original, I knew who she was. I knew what the world was. I knew I was familiar and prepared. Yes, ofcourse when you are coming back into the thick of things after a long time, there is obviously a sense of reservation in your mind about will I be able to do justice to this role. How will I translate into this character. Will that character be then understood and accepted. But other than that, I just went with one belief of performing to my fullest. And with absolute conviction.
Your on-screen chemistry with Sushant Singh is palpable and in many ways better than many new-age on screen couples. So to achieve that, how did you guys strike that rapport off-screen so it could translate in your performance on-screen.
Thank you for that. Sushant Ji is a thorough gentleman. We were introduced in one of our readings. We were encouraged to go on a coffee date, ‘to get to know each other better’. And I remember we had a lovely chat. We just spoke and I think that we got to know each other from that sense and we spoke about where we were from, our backgrounds, our leanings in terms of what we are doing or we connect with in terms of work. And we ended up doing a lot of chats. And when we were on sets, we were make an effort to kind of spend more time conversing. Because, you know chemistry is a part of acting but the connection has to come as two humans that comes with getting to know the other person as human being. So I have to give Sushant Ji full marks because he is such a fabulous actor. There is so much of practice and technique and control that it’s effortless when the camera comes on. And that really helped me. Because he played his role and allowed me to play mine without any qualms. We would eat together so that helped us break the ice. I am so happy to hear that people have really responded to this chemistry. I have been really getting very amazing messages from absolute strangers telling us how lovely the chemistry was. So again the casting team and directors saw something that we didn’t. At the end, I would just like to say that it really takes a very very sure co-actor to give you the space to lead things. And to take charge of things. That was Sushant Ji for sure. It was such an ease to work with him.
As part of your role, you had to perform some bold scenes for the series. How difficult and challenging was that for you as an actor? Considering Rana Naidu was your first full-fledged series. How did you go around preparing yourself for that?
Like you rightly said, as the part of the role. Firstly, I don’t think they were bold scenes. They are real scenes between real people and in service of the character. And Anna and Tej have undeniable chemistry. And they have a tender attraction that culminates into their love story. And that is how it is in real life. I think that it was shot beautifully. The part that I had to really…I did have certain reservations with regards to the fact that I am coming back and doing my full fledged role after a very long time. But like I said, I was sharing with somebody earlier, I am at a stage in my career where it’s time I am true to the artist that I am and that artist serves the character and the production and the director and I had complete faith in Suparn and Karan and Netflix. I had complete faith in the series, the producer and the character Anna. Besides that, I think what people don’t see is that there are co-ordinators. It’s like a choreography. And being a dancer and an actor, it really was just natural. It felt natural in the service of the role. I would say that if it would have felt unnatural for the role, if it felt gimmicky, I would definitely have raised this conversation but like I said, this was absolutely natural for my character. It was absolutely, beautifully, tenderly portrayed and any doubt I may have had, they just dissipated when I was on set.
How was it like sharing the screen space with Venkatesh Daggubati and Rana Daggubati? What sort of learning did you take from them as an actor as well as a person?
Venkatesh Sir and Rana both are extremely down to earth, very grounded, normal people. And the fact that they are actors of great fan following or great caliber comes into play when they step out into public. But when you are sitting with them, they connect with you as humans. That is amazing quality that I saw. They were very, very. Venkatesh Sir I have worked at various times in the wee hours of morning. I have only seen him do 200%. He was more enthusiastic and with it than a 16 or 1y years old actors present there. So work ethics wise, it was a massive chapter, I took a page from their book as to how to conduct yourself at work.
Multiple actors I have spoken to who have worked with Suparn Verma have told me how insightful and amazing he is with his craft, what were some of your observations of him and how did he and Karan help you gel seamlessly into the world of Rana Naidu?
Suparn is instinctive, fun, young, crazy. And deeply, deeply intelligent and knowledgeable about his craft. So he takes his deep knowledge about what he is doing and brings ease with his attitude to everybody around. And he is fast and he just so boom boom boom. He is there. Working with Suparn was just amazing. So as beautiful as it was to see Karan work as well because they are dynamically very different directors. So both of them were a pleasure to watch. Their attention to detail. Suparn was like exactly opposite of Karan in the sense that Karan is more introverted and Suparn is more outgoing, it was like seeing two people paint the imagery. It was amazing to watch him at work. He played a lot of pranks on me and I played it with him too so we can get into that on a later stage.
I was also going through your social media posts and it seems you guys had a lot of fun at the sets? Can you recall some fun and interesting moments with the cast and crew when you guys were not shooting?
We had a lots of fun. I am a serial Instagrammer when I am shooting. And even though people have been told not to shoot, I was taking the ease. I got really, really fun moments. There was one particular night, we were shooting in fort I think or in Sterlings somewhere. And it was like around 3 o clock in the morning, wee hours in the morning and we had our three big actors, Sushant, Abhishek and Venkatesh Sir standing in one line. And each had a fan, gradually bigger in size, relating to the years they have been in the industry. So one was sitting with a mini fan, small size that was Abhi, then the other person was sitting with his medium size fan and the four foot fan in front of him was Venkatesh because he has been in the industry for 35 years. There were many moments like this. Suparn had played many pranks on me when I used to do my first scenes with Sushant. Suparn came and scared the living daylights out of me but then he broke into a massive laughter so there was a lot of leg pulling so it was great fun, great time that we had.
Coming to the reception of the show, people are divided. On one hand, there is a section who absolutely loved it and then there are people who are outraged and offended with It’s themes, content and portrayal. So what are your thoughts on the feedback? Is the outrage justified or are people overreacting?
I think that people are entitled to their opinions. That’s the beauty of putting out a piece of content. Just like Instagram or a play, any piece, once out in the public domain, people are gonna love it, hate it or appreciate it. So it’s natural. There has never been one unanimous response to piece. There are lovers and there are haters. And that’s the part of putting out a piece in public domain. I think personally that Rana Naidu is a whole vibe. It is never seen before industry and language that has beautifully been spun by Karan, the Telugu speaking industry that has migrated to Bombay. It is a show about a fixer and his world and neesless to say, there will be some people who will vibe with it and some won’t. That’s natural.
You’re the daughter of illustrious and the multi-faceted Ila Arun Ji(I am a huge admirer of her work btw in the realms of acting/music). Now since the whole nepotism debate has sort of taken its due course, to what extent being her daughter helped you in your career? And what are your thoughts about nepotism? Is it arbitrary or otherwise?
Being my mother’s daughter and being married to Dhruv, I mean from the family I come from which is so literary, culturally rich has played a huge part in shaping the artist that I am. I would say yes, I’ve always been an actor first. But I’ve been around people who have articulated creativity in many ways than one. And that has never been a taboo in my family of using different mediums to express your creativity. It is just that I’ve never kind of talked publically or openly about it. It’s just part of my day to day living. Writing something has always come naturally to me . I started doing it about 15 years back properly as a one off for Dhruv and then that became a fixed practice and then here I am 20-25 jingles later, two film songs later, four pop songs later, one sung by Atif Aslam, two sung by Dhruv on Coke Studio. And here I am. I’ve never stopped and said that is the only thing I would do or not do. Or this is what I would do. I think that there are different times as a human being that I want to express myself differently and I would continue to do so. But yeah, it stems from being a creative performer first and this is the year of triumph. The year that I’ve set out for myself to break all sorts of restrictions that I put on my own. Because we as performers tend to limit ourselves and think that this is what I should do, not do, will do, can do, maybe, maybe not. But this year, moving forward is the time to seize the day. So I am ready for more more roles, for more writing, for creating more content that I am happy with on social media. To do more meatier roles on OTT platforms. And just to push the envelope so that I can proudly say to myself at the end of my day that I have done justice to the artist inside of me.
Now you are an actor first but I strongly believe that being Ila Arun’s daughter and being married to Dhruv Ghanekar, you have a lot of creative facets to yourself that the world has yet to witness. And we saw a glimpse of it with the song you had written for Dhakkad. So tell me something about some of those aspects that you might want to showcase in future?
Dhakad was not easy to write. People think it’s easy. Dhruv and my mother, both are very tough task-masters. Especially Dhruv as a music director, he doesn’t take the first draft. He was really ‘ragdao’ you and make you come up with your best so I am really fortunate to be in company of people who don’t expect and accept mediocrity so that’s about Dhakad. Will I collaborate with Mom and Dhruv? Oh My God, yes. They are the toughest people to work with. Both of them are supremely funny and talented. They look down upon so many reels that I want to do with them. But now, like I said, I am not taking no for an answer. I literally put the gun on Dhruv’s head and we do stuff. When it comes to social media collaboration, you’ll be seeing a lot more of that reels too. Really serious artist. On the work front, my mom and I are looking forward to doing more things together. She and Dhruv collaborate a lot. And I guess, at some point, I will be joining that and making it a trio.
Tell us something about your upcoming acting projects. What do you have in the pipeline and what kind of roles one should be expecting from you?
My next project is a very special one with Hansal Mehta. At this point, I can’t divulge more than just that. It’s been announced. It’s called Scoop and I am very eagerly awaiting that. What an honour it has been. I am also currently writing around nine songs for Japanese musicals that Dhruv is composing for and I am also writing a script. However, as an actor, I am raring to go. I am ready, readier than I’ve ever been. I am hungry and like I said, this year, it’s about breaking any limitations that I may have set for myself. And proving to myself that I can do as a woman whatever I wish to and do it damn well! So to all the directors who are reading this, I am ready. Please let me know if there is something fantastic I am happy to be a part of. Besides this, I am also in conversation with two other projects that might go on the floors this year. And yes only good things so I am raring.
