Adah Sharma, who is currently riding high with two consecutive wins— The Kerala Story and Sunflower 2 is now gearing up for a hattrick with Bastar: The Naxal Story. The film is slated to release on March 15, 2024, and is directed by Sudipto Sen. In an exclusive interview with The Free Press Journal, the actress talks about her diverse roles, how her life has changed after the huge success of The Kerala Story and more. Excerpts:
How far your life has changed after the success of The Kerala Story?
It has enormously changed, to be honest. It feels great at the moment. I almost feel like a different person myself when people talk about me now. I have three releases this month so it’s a beautiful time for me.
Do you have a better social standing now?
It feels wonderful but I don’t take these things too seriously also. I am still very much the same person. I have been fortunate to do such kind of roles. Though it feels nice to get a tag of highest female grosser so far to my credit. I like people to have expectations from my work.
Does box office pressure bother you in any way?
If one doesn’t remind me, I don’t think about it at all. I am an outsider and have nothing to lose anything. I landed up becoming an actor who is tasting success. I am grateful that I am got to play characters where I can put my heart, blood and soul.
Go on…
Box office is never in my hands. I hope Bastar does the same magic as The Kerala Story. I really believe that people will pour in same amount of love to Bastar as they did for my previous film.
How do you get that courage of doing such challenging roles one after another?
I try to do each role as real as possible. I am very obsessed with my roles, it is like life and death for me once I take up any role. I am human and not a robot so my characters do effect me. I do have sleepless nights before and after the releases. When I signed Bastar, I didn’t know about a lot of things including that our own people are killing Jawans. It is so disturbing.
What sort of training you underwent for your role in Bastar: The Naxal Story?
I did a lot of voice modulation workshop since we wanted to make my voice sound very dominating as I can’t sound sweet for a role like this. I had to put on a little weight. I used to have ghee laddoos and 5-7 bananas everyday. Earlier, I have been trained from the National shooter. I do have a formal training in gun firing while shooting Commando. For Bastar, I learned very raw, gritty and real action unlike my previous action.
