Scared to the core to hear such a horrific incident, says Monali Thakur

HYDERABAD: It is said that to get a role right, an actor should get into the skin of the character. And that’s exactly what playback singer and actress Monali Thakur did for the much acclaimed film Lakshmi.

In the film, she plays a 14 year old girl who is forced into prostitution. Monali, who did a lot of research and workshops to get into the skin of the character, says, It’s a story of the heroism and courage of a real life girl, Lakshmi, and how she drags the culprits to court and comes out stronger. This is a landmark case. When I heard the story I was pepped and at the same time scared because as an actor I didn’t want to underplay the emotions.

Talking about her experiences while doing the film, she says, I feel it’s an extremely difficult subject to deal with because it’s based on a real story. In movies when we see violence we know that it’s fake. But here it’s based on someone’s life.

Revealing her fears, Monali, who is originally a playback singer who was rose to popularity on Indian Idol two, says, during the script narration, all of us cried many times as the young girl’s story was so touching. I was scared to the core to hear such a horrific incident. But later I got into the flow.

“I also felt uncomfortable shooting for certain scenes, like when a brutal incident happens with Lakshmi and she goes to wash herself. I couldn’t understand how I should portray such a sensitive scene. But then, I made up my mind and got into what Lakshmi would have felt,” she adds.

Monali, however, has not met Lakshmi in real life. “I so want to meet this heroic girl. But Nagesh sir (the director) didn’t want to reveal her identity as it’s a sensitive topic. I have expressed my desire to meet her. Hopefully, I will soon.”

Monali also says that she would love to show the movie to Lakshmi. “I don’t know if she has seen this movie or not but I wish that she watches the film. In fact she is the most important audience,” she says.

Lakshmi has been widely appreciated. It was also screened at the Palm Springs International Film Festival where the cast received a standing ovation. Recently, the film was screened in Hyderabad, Mumbai and other cities.

And Monali is overwhelmed with the response. “I was flooded with compliments. Many of them touched my heart. Like Juhi Chawla was in tears and came up to me and said ‘It didn’t feel like you were acting for the first time’. Also Nandita Das, Sudhir Mishra and many others appreciated me for the role.”

Monali had debuted as a playback singer with two songs for the Bollywood film Race in 2008. Recently, she also won the Best Female Playback Singer award for the song Sawaar Loon from Lootera.

About how she got the role in the first place, Monali says, “A few friends and I were jamming at a party and Nagesh sir was there. I have always admired and loved his style of cinema and I wanted to go and talk to him. But he was continuously staring at me and after a point I became uncomfortable and had no words. Later I was approached to play Lakshmi.”

After Lakshmi, Monali is all set to star in a romantic comedy film titled Mango by Abbas Tyrewala.