Showing posts with label Avantika Vandanapu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Avantika Vandanapu. Show all posts
The world of cinema sexualizes high school. There are short skirts that go shorter-Sudhanshu Saria
8:41 AM
Avantika Vandanapu (third from left) of Mean Girls’ fame sent her audition tape from Los Angeles
Unlike YA offerings that pass off older actors as teenagers, Big Girls Don't Cry director Saria on how the team went scouting from Kolkata to LA for seven fresh faces
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; March 12, 2024)
The first thing that strikes one about Big Girls Don’t Cry is that its posters have seven relatively unknown faces staring back at you. This, when the young adult series also stars Pooja Bhatt, Zoya Hussain and Raima Sen. Sudhanshu Saria, who has helmed the Prime Video offering with three directors, says it was a conscious decision.
“We are batting on the front foot in terms of who this show is for. Amazon surprised us. We never saw any marketing material that didn’t embrace the show’s intent. Everything about the show had a creator-first approach, and Amazon set that standard,” he beams.
Helmed by Saria, Nitya Mehra, Karan Kapadia and Kopal Naithani, Big Girls Don’t Cry studies the friendships and rivalries, joys and troubles of growing-up years through the journey of seven students at an all-girls’ boarding school. One of the series’ win is that unlike other YA offerings, it has cast age-appropriate actors— Avantika Vandanapu, Aneet Padda, Dalai, Vidushi, Lhakyila, Afrah Sayed and Akshita Sood.
The National Award-winning director recalls, “When we began the casting process, Shivam Gupta and Romil Modi [casting directors] were asked to join forces. We were casting out of Los Angeles and Kathmandu, Pune and Kolkata. I didn’t want us to be stuck in the eco-chamber of Bandra. Our rule was that you can’t bring us actors over 21 years of age. They need to look the part. Casting 25-to-30-year-olds is not a believable portrait.”
For the series’ world building, Saria and Mehra tapped into their experiences from The Doon School and Welham Girls’ School. “The world of cinema sexualizes high school. There are short skirts that go shorter. Welham is a world of salwars. Nitya and I come from the Dehradun ecosystem and know this world of boarding schools,” says the director. In telling authentic stories of teenage girls, the makers faced another battle—that of making these girls believe in their natural beauty.
“Make-up on our set involved removing any the girls might have put. We had to keep reminding the girls that they are gorgeous the way they are, with acne, facial hair and all. By the end of it, they thought of me as the lip-balm hating uncle. In the social media world, girls are not enjoying how naturally wonderful they look.”
We have lacked representation for so long. With Never Have I Ever and Spin, I am glad we can see ourselves on screen-Avantika Vandanapu
8:16 AM
As she fronts Hollywood film Spin, Indian-American actor Avantika says it’s a big step ahead for Asian community across the US
Mohar Bas (MID-DAY; August 8, 2021)
Disney’s first Indo-American movie Spin, also featuring Abhay Deol, is Avantika Vandanapu’s big break. As an American teenager of Indian origin, the 16-year-old says that seeing herself on screen is as much life-altering as it’s culture-defining. “We have lacked representation for so long. With Never Have I Ever and Spin, I am glad we can see ourselves on screen. It’s so hard being an Indian in the US; to see people going through similar struggles like ours can be empowering,” states the actor, who plays a high-school student who follows her passion for DJing.
Having faced many instances of children being uncomfortable around a brown kid in school, Vandanapu says she felt marginalised as an adolescent. The Manjari Makijany-directed venture, which puts the spotlight on an Indo-American teenager, hence is all the more important to the Los Angeles-based actor. “I have dealt with the occasional comments like, ‘Go back to your country!’ But I know people in the midwest have it worse. It’s also that lingering feeling of being left out, and that you don’t have the same opportunities as others because of your skin colour. The Caucasian community assumes that as an Indian, you don’t relate to the American experience.”
Fortunately, with Hollywood taking a step towards diversity, the attitude on a film set is democratic. She notes that over the years, the work culture has evolved. “I am treated the same as any white actress on every set. It helps that the projects I have worked on have more coloured people on set. For Spin, thousands of people auditioned. Here, a rigorous audition process is a standard.”
Juggling academics while maintaining an acting career hasn’t been easy. Knowing that her peers in LA are going through similar experiences is reassuring, but Vandanapu admits that her experience in her previous school was “complicated”. “Earlier, I went to a largely Asian school where everyone was competitive. They didn’t treat me well. Now, I am suddenly getting a lot of apologies.”
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