Chitrangada Singh reveals one acting tip given by Shabana Azmi

Mumbai, April 3 (IANS) Actress Chitrangada Singh, who has been getting a lot of positive response to her work in the recently released streaming series ‘Khakee: The Bengal Chapter’, has shared the one acting tip that she still holds close to her heart.

The tip was given to her by veteran actress Shabana Azmi during one of their interactions. Chitrangada recently spoke with IANS, and shared that she was completely lost on the sets of her film ‘Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi’ through which she made her foray in cinema.

Recollecting how she got her debut film, she told IANS, “I have not studied acting. I have never done theatre, or anything. It actually was the best coincidence of my life I suppose that I got discovered. I was modeling in Delhi. Director Sudhir Mishra was looking for this girl Geeta Rao (her character in ‘Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi’) and they hadn't found one. Lyricist Swanand Kirkire, who at that time was Sudhir’s assistant, was doing all the auditions. I owe him a lot for working with me and making me give a good audition. So that's how it started”.

She further mentioned that during the shoot, she felt very lost as her fellow actors like Kay Kay Menon would talk about emotional graphs and characterization. She being from no acting background felt very out of place on a set which was buzzing with cinema both in terms of language and technicalities.

She continued, “I told Sudhir one day, ‘I don't know what to do’. And, he said, ‘That’s the best thing because all you will do in the scene is react. I don't want you to act’. It was such a beautiful thing. I just hung on to that one line and was like, ‘Oka, so there is nothing missing in me. There is nothing that I am lacking’”.

“I got a chance to work with Shabana Ji in a film later. And I was discussing it with her. And Baman was also there. So we were discussing how I have not gone an acting school or haven't studied acting and all that. And you know what Shabana Ji said? She said the problem with studying acting is that first you learn and then you have to unlearn. So she said you are in the best place because you haven't learnt and you won't have to unlearn. It's a longer process. I feel every actor has their own method”, she added.

‘Khakee: The Bengal Chapter’ streams on Netflix.

--IANS

aa/