Showing posts with label Amruta Subhash interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amruta Subhash interview. Show all posts
Nawazuddin Siddiqui told me, ‘Tere Marathi mein kitna accha kaam ho raha hai, mujhe Marathi seekhni chahiye’-Amruta Subhash
4:16 PM
Priyanka Sharma (MID-DAY; September 2, 2025)
Amruta Subhash believes in miracles. Why wouldn’t she, when the journey of her latest Marathi film, Jarann, is proof of one? The psychological horror thriller struggled to get screens when it opened in cinemas three months ago. However, strong word-of-mouth propelled it to box-office success. With its recent ZEE5 première, the acclaim continues to grow. For Subhash, it’s the best kind of validation for her work.
“It’s not less than a miracle! When the film came into theatres, there was no platform attached to it. [Since] it was my producer, Amol Bhagat’s first film, he faced difficulties in making and releasing it. I didn’t take my market price for the film as I thought that such content should reach the screen. When it came on OTT, people were saying, ‘Oh God!, Why didn’t we see it in the theatre?’ I was always proud of the choices I’ve made, but when they get backing from the market, it is a double dhamaka,” she laughs.
Jarann is special for the actor as it marked her return to Marathi cinema after five years. Her last Marathi outing was filmmaker Sumitra Bhave’s Dithee (2019). Subhash cites her packed schedule in the Hindi film industry for the gap. Her recent Hindi filmography boasts several popular films and series, including Gully Boy (2019), Ghost Stories (2020), Saas Bahu Achaar Pvt Ltd (2022), and Lust Stories (2023).
Subhash believes she has been lucky to be in the right place at the right time in both Marathi and Hindi cinema. “When I was working in Marathi, I was doing films like Killa [2015] and Valu [2008]. Times were fortunate for me that wherever I was working, in whichever language, it did well. I remember Nawazuddin [Siddiqui] telling me when I started working with him in Raman Raghav 2.0, ‘Yaar, tere Marathi mein kitna accha kaam ho raha hai, mujhe Marathi seekhni chahiye.’ So when I was working in Marathi films, the industry was going through its best phase. When I started working on OTT, some of the best work was happening there.”
Besides luck, the actor credits her success to her clarity on the kind of work she wants to be associated with. That clarity has led to long waiting periods, but she reminds herself that diversity is the only way to keep the actor in her alive
“After Gully Boy, I said no to a lot of work. [I wanted to] explore something else. But I waited a lot before I got Sacred Games S02. The only tension was that I had bills to pay but [I was] not earning money. So, I’ve kept my expenses in control.”
But she admits it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find fresh, unique work on OTT. Many artistes have complained that shows are becoming formulaic and offbeat content isn’t being encouraged.
“When I started working, most of the roles that I did were first written as men, be it Sacred Games 2 or Dhamaka (2021). So something was beginning to happen, where women were getting parts that they earlier wouldn’t. Women [were not] just playing a mother on screen. But I am curious how content creators are going to place us now. It’s too early to say that there’s saturation in imagining women in unconventional roles. Creating good content is very challenging. I am ready to wait and be hopeful. And my hope has paid me well.”
People told me after Gully Boy I only would get mother roles, but that did not happen-Amruta Subhash
8:34 AM
Vinay MR Mishra (BOMBAY TIMES; December 7, 2023)
Actress Amruta Subhash is extremely “excited” with the kind of love she is getting for her stint in the anthology Lust Stories. The actress is winning awards for her character Seema, however, for her what is more rewarding is the love she is getting from people. “Renuka (Shahane, actor) Ji gifted me a saree after watching the movie and I was just honoured with the love she showered at me,” Amruta divulges.
The actress became an overnight find after playing actor Ranveer Singh’s mother in Zoya Akhtar’s directorial Gully Boy. Amruta, however, started doing back to back work in the Hindi films which were highly acclaimed.
“I am very lucky, makers are not slotting me in any particular character. I am not stereotyped and that is a blessing. People told me after Gully Boy I only would get mother roles, but that did not happen. I did such different characters after Gully Boy. I played a bar dancer and an urban boss lady in my next. Now, I am doing a psychological thriller which is again in an urban space,” Amruta reveals.
The Dhamaka actress will soon be seein in director Rushikesh Gupte’s next. With the yet to be titled Amruta is returning to Marathi space after almost 3 years. “I am working in Marathi movies after many years. I am very excited to have a good script. I get triggered only by scripts,” she adds.
Furthermore, she also reveals being in conversation with an international project. “I am in conversation with a project that is from out of India. It is an international project, which would be my first. So, fingers crossed,” she ends.
OTT has given me the opportunity to have a big car and a big house-Amruta Subhash
8:08 AM
Amruta Subhash credits the digital medium for giving her the space to reinvent and experiment like never before
Rishabh Suri (HINDUSTAN TIMES; June 24, 2023)
Amruta Subhash’s career graph shot up after Gully Boy (2018). But, it came with the risk of being typecast as a mother. This is why the actor waited patiently for the right kind of work to come her way — and that paid off. What followed were web shows Sacred Games 2, Bombay Begums, Saas Bahu Achaar Pvt. Ltd., Dhamaka (2022) and now, the upcoming Lust Stories 2, all of which gave her the chance to showcase her range as an artiste, within a span of five years.
“Earlier, I used to say no to roles I wasn’t satisfied with and sit at home, not earning,” Subhash tells us. But now, with the abundance of opportunities that the web offers, things have changed for the 44-year-old, who says, “I don’t know about other actresses, but as far as I am concerned, I am paid very well here. I shifted into my big, wonderful house just two-three months back. OTT has given me the opportunity to have a big car and a big house.”
‘OTT made me the protagonist’
It was only in a web project that Subhash got the chance to lead a show. “The [film] industry tries to put you in slots and I have always tried to break [out of] them. But this thing (perception) was still there, ‘Yeh actor toh sirf supporting cast mein rahegi’,” recalls the National Award winner, adding, “It was in Saas Bahu... that I was presented as a protagonist. [For that,] I am really grateful to the makers.”
‘Films offer less variety’
The content landscape has changed drastically with the advent of OTT, and Subhash can vouch for it with her body of work on the platform: “After Gully Boy, everybody told me not to get slotted as a mother. Then Sacred Games 2 came my way. I am grateful to Anurag Kashyap (filmmaker), who kept visualizing me in different ways, whether it was Choked, Sacred Games or Raman Raghav 2.0... I am glad OTT happened to India. When Bombay Begums came to me, for instance, I could never have imagined I’d get to play a seductress at my age!”
But, Subhash is well aware that things haven’t always been this way. “Some years ago, I was interviewing actor Deepti Naval for her book and she told me that after a certain point of time, she left acting because she didn’t want to get slotted in similar kinds of roles. There was no OTT during her time,” she recalls.
This is precisely why Subhash feels the industry has come a long way: “My favourite line is that earlier, content was king. But now, content is queen too, with women being offered so many amazing characters on OTT.”
Thanks to my mother, and Naseeruddin Shah’s prodding, I keep going back to theatre-Amruta Subhash
8:30 AM
As she readies to return to theatre with Firse Honeymoon, Amruta Subhash credits actress mother Jyoti for lessons on performance, life and everything in between
Aastha Atray Banan (MID-DAY; August 7, 2022)
“I once came home from school and mom was mumbling under her breath, reading a script. I asked her, what she was doing, and she said ‘one needs to spend some me time with the character. When one does that, the character opens up and speaks to you’,” says actor Amruta Subhash, while recalling a memory from her childhood. It has now become her go-to mantra when prepping for a role. We are sitting with the Bombay Begum actress and her theatre veteran mother Jyoti, who you will remember as the grandmother in Gully Boy, at their Kala Nagar home. Subhash’s Filmfare trophies and press cuttings adorn the study table.
The mother-daughter are in sync. Subhash recently put up a video on social media, celebrating her mother’s 75th birthday, expressing awe at her “waterfall” energy. “My mother was at NSD [National School of Drama], and one of her batchmates was Naseeruddin Shah, who was also my teacher. Later, I was course mates with Heeba [Shah’s daughter]. We would always share notes about how our parents were so accomplished, and what would we need to do to match up. Even now, when Naseer sir meets me he says, ‘Ya, I know you got an award for that show, but then are you doing theatre?’.”
That question perhaps did the trick. Subash, now along with working on two OTT shows, is returning to theatre with Firse Honeymoon. The play, written and directed by her husband Sandesh Kulkarni, who played Ganesh Gaitonde’s father in Sacred Games, is a relationship story. “It’s every couple’s story... What happens when the spark burns out? It’s about a couple revisiting the scene of their honeymoon 12 years later.”
Growing up, theatre was all around her. Thanks to her mum, she was surrounded by theatrewalas like Satyadev Dubey and Shriram Lagoo. Jyoti recalls, “At NSD, we did folk plays from all over the country, but we were also exposed to German, French and Russian plays. Artistes from those countries would come down and work with us. I remember acting with Naseer in Eugène Ionesco’s The Lesson.”
The septuagenarian has just finished shooting for a small part in Rajkumar Hirani’s Dunki, which stars Shah Rukh Khan. “My memory doesn’t serve me well, so doing larger parts is harder for me,” she confesses. Amruta adds, “When mom met SRK, she told him that she had met his father, who used to run the canteen at NSD. He leaned, and lowered his forehead so that she could kiss him.”
The mother and daughter seem content with where they are in life, and it reflects in their energy and beaming faces. “At 75, I have realized that nothing is constant. But some things remain the same. As far as art is concerned, or human expression is concerned, or valuation of each expression is concerned, that stays the same. So is our idea of good and bad. One is always striving to be better, and that struggle happens with actors all the time.”
Amruta admits that there is lot to learn from her mother. She remembers attending the rehearsals of Girish Karnad’s Tughlaq, where Jyoti played the evil stepmother. “I used to think, ‘at home, mum is so sweet, making bakhri for us, and on stage she is screaming’. What happens to her? I knew then that I wanted to learn everything about this process of being able to transform oneself.”
But the most important lesson that Amruta says she has learnt from her mother is to remember that the core of an artiste is about performing. “It’s not about seeking validation from how many people are watching the show. My mum comes from the tradition of Rashtriya Seva Dal [a grassroots-front organisation of the Indian National Congress]. They inculcated some values in my mum, which she inculcated in me. Everything is not about money, everything is not about being famous—the core is what you are getting out of it, and finding out what makes you happy. Thanks to my mother, and Naseer sir’s prodding, I keep going back to theatre, which gives me that happiness.”
Unlike my other roles, I had no idea where my Dhamaka character came from. I didn’t know her at all-Amruta Subhash
8:17 AM
Actor Amruta Subhash is happy to not be slotted; wants to play a villain
Titas Chowdhury (HINDUSTAN TIMES; December 30, 2021)
Actor Amruta Subhash had an interesting 2021 with two releases. In the OTT show, Bombay Begums, she played a bar dancer, while the film Dhamaka, which released last month, saw her essaying the part of a no-nonsense news editor. “I am grateful. It has always been my dream to not be slotted into a particular kind of role. We keep saying that we want to do different kinds of roles but that depends on a lot of factors,” she says.
Dhamaka, particularly, was a tough act for Subhash, as it required her to tread into an unknown territory. She shares, “I credit my casting director Abhimanyu Ray for thinking out of the box and visualising me as Ankita (her character). I was excited because her mind, look and body language are completely different from mine. I was so tempted to play her. Unlike my other roles, I had no idea where this character came from. I didn’t know her at all.”
But the 42-year-old actor adds that she was “pleasantly surprised” during the look test after glamming up in the film for the first time. “I didn’t want to wear a saree, because I wore sarees in many films, but when I draped one, it added more weightage to my character,” she says, asserting that look tests are extremely important to her, as they help her “grasp the first note about a character” and that’s why she didn’t hesitate when asked to chop her hair short.
While many referred to her character in the film as a villain, Subhash reveals that she wishes to play an out-and-out antagonist someday. “Even when I’m playing a villain, I’ll keep her as human as possible. Every human being has reasons for the way they behave, but we tend to look at their actions and not journeys. Right and wrong is relative. I might not think like a character, but I won’t judge her by comparing her to my values,” she ends.
Kartik Aaryan’s personal journey to become a star is inspiring-Amruta Subhash
8:20 AM
Amruta Subhash discusses dubbing from home for Kartik Aaryan starrer Dhamaka, directed by Ram Madhvani
Uma Ramasubramanian (MID-DAY; May 23, 2021)
With a penchant for not doing run-of-the-mill roles, Amruta Subhash has managed to make her mark with projects like Shwaas, Astu, Gully Boy, Sacred Games 2, among others. After playing Lily in Bombay Begums, the actor is now gearing up for Ram Madhvani’s Dhamaka, which will stream on Netflix. “I was promoting for Bombay Begums when the teaser of Dhamaka released,” says the actor, who strongly asserts that both her characters are poles apart.
While the shooting was wrapped up before the second lockdown, Subhash still had to complete her dubbing. “[Major portion of the] dubbing was wrapped up before the lockdown. However, I had to do certain [voice recordings] from home. I used an app to align the tone,” says the actor, adding that “the pandemic has taught everyone to be independent and learn new things”.
Subhash, who plays boss-lady to Kartik Aaryan’s character, says she has slipped into the power role with much ease. “I have always wanted to work with Ram since Neerja [2016]. His working style is completely in sync with theatre actors like me,” says Subhash, who is glad that “filmmakers are noticing my work and not slotting me in specific roles”.
On teaming up with Aaryan, who has had his own struggles before shining in the limelight, she says that the Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 actor is an “instinctive actor”. “Kartik’s personal journey to become a star is inspiring. It was great to know him [off camera].”
While she waits for Dhamaka, Subhash is excited about her film with late filmmaker Sumitra Bhave, Dithee, which recently dropped on Sony LIV. They had previously worked together on the National Award-winning film Astu. “Dithee is an intense film that talks about coming to terms with the loss of a loved one. It deals with the complicated experience of grief. Ironically, I never thought this would be my last film with Sumitra Bhave.”
We should have handled #MeToo movement with an open mind-Amruta Subhash
8:24 AM
Sugandha Rawal (HINDUSTAN TIMES; April 2, 2021)
Amruta Subhash feels while the #MeToo movement started on a very strong note in India, it soon lost its course with time.
The movement took shape in the West when a wave of sexual harassment accusations swept Hollywood, making people take notice of sexism embedded deep in the entertainment industry. The conversation trickled down into Bollywood as well, bringing names such as Nana Patekar, Vikas Bahl, Alok Nath, Anu Malik and Sajid Khan under the scanner.
“In India the movement started very strong. I feel we could have handled it with more openness, jo zarori hai. You need to look at all the sides and aspects of the incident,” says Subhash, whose recent web series Bombay Begums puts spotlight on the grey areas that come with the #MeToo movement.
Picking up a reference from the show, the 41-year-old shares, “When the victim gathers the courage to share her ordeal, one person doesn’t believe her because she is accusing someone who has been her mentor and friend. But eventually she changes her stance to stand with the victim.”
After the release of the web series, the actor reveals she got a message from a woman, who herself was struggling to speak up against her boss, who was exploiting her. But one can’t be lopsided when it comes to making a judgement because “ladki bhi sahi ho sakti hai, aur kabhi kabhi ladka bhi”.
For the Gully Boy (2019) actor, it is important to embrace the trait of agreeing to disagree.“Aapko ek cheez lag rahi hai aur mujhe alag cheez lag rahi hai (accepting that is important),” she adds.
Ask her if the movement took some form of witch-hunting in India and she agrees. “We need to look at a case from all points of view. We need to understand that we are dealing with issues where many are vulnerable. We need to be sensitive,” concludes the actor.
Like the chameleon, Yadav's eyes are always lowered so nobody knows what she is thinking-Amruta Subhash
8:57 AM
Actress Amruta Subhash, whom we now know as Yadavji from Sacred Games 2, talks of her unlikely inspiration for the role
Aastha Atray Banan (MID-DAY; August 25, 2019)
"I was shooting in Sri Lanka for a TV show, and I was on a boat and I saw a chameleon. He wasn't doing much but looked dangerous, and nobody wanted to be close to him. His eyes were half closed and that made him look more menacing than if he had his eyes wide ope, and was darting around. That chameleon is the inspiration for my preparation for the role of KDY," says Amruta Subhash of playing RAW agent K D Yadav in the second season of Sacred Games.It was the most anticipated India web release of the year, following the success of the first season. Yet, Sacred Games 2—which stars Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Kalki Koechlin and Pankaj Tripathi and has been made by Vikramaditya Motwane and Neeraj Ghaywan—disappointed by its lack of pace and slacking of storytelling. Even so, Subhash's nuanced portrayal was tough to miss. She plays Yadav, a RAW agent who used gangster Ganesh Gaitonde (played by Siddiqui), and several other characters, all in the name of protecting her country. "My husband, Sandesh Kulkarni, who plays Gaitonde's first father in the show, told me: 'A RAW agent is so powerful that they don't need to show it'. So I have played it like that. She [Yadav] never gets bothered. Like the chameleon, her eyes are always lowered so nobody knows what she is thinking. I had to take the sparkle away from my eyes," says the actress, who is full of sparkle as she chats with us, her vivaciousness at complete odds with the character she has now become famous for. "Everywhere I go, people have been asking me 'bomb fata kya?'." It is a reference to the ending of the second season of the show based on Vikram Chandra's novel.
Subhash is no stranger to getting into the thick of a character. The National Award winner has won accolades for her roles as Aasawari in Sandeep Sawant's Shwaas (which was India's official selection for the Oscars in 2004), and is a coveted Marathi theatre and film actress. She made her Hindi debut with Nandita Das's Firaaq, and this year was also seen as Razia Sheikh, Ranveer Singh's mother in Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy. With such a large body of acclaimed work behind her, it's surprising, even humbling, to know that she auditioned for her role in Sacred Games. "I don't mind it at all. Filmmakers want to see how will you look in that particular role. I had just cut my hair, as I wanted a change, and then Nawaz called me for the premiere of Manto. I went there and met Vikramaditya, and two days later got a call from the casting director. The scene I had to act out was the first one in the show, where you first meet Yadav. I heard they auditioned many people, but eventually, Anurag said 'this is my KDY'."
As she says, ironically, the character of Yadav in the book is a male one. "I believe that the universe gives what you ask for. I wanted to do a different role, and I got a man to change into a woman, for me to play that good role!"
If she is bothered by the flak that the show has been getting, staying true to her role of the unflappable Yadav, she doesn't let on. "I think the creators didn't go with what the audiences wanted. They went with what the content needed, and that's not always easy to do. The first season was more on the surface, about Gaitonde's life. This is going inwards, and any inward journey is not pleasurable," says the 43-year-old.
For Subhash, it's been an exciting ride ever since as a child, she saw her mother, actress Jyoti Subhash (who plays her mother-in-law in Gully Boy), on stage. "She was so different at home, and I used to be awed at the transformation. I was a shy kid, and I realised the only place I wasn't shy was on stage. Theatre is my favourite though. I look at the whole graph of a character, so if you ask me to play a scene from the middle, I know just how to get there," says the National School of Drama alumni who was taught by stalwarts such as Satyadev Dubey. For now, she is getting ready for another movie and web series and promises us we will see her on-screen soon. "I just keep asking the universe, whom I call my lover, for whatever I want. I believe this—what you seek, is seeking you!"
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