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'I wanted to act ever since I was in school'

'I had a long struggle,' actress Kavita Radheysham tells Patcy N about her struggles of landing a lead role in Bollywood.

Getting a lead role in a Bollywood movie is not easy, if you have no filmi connections. The road involves a lot of struggle.
Delhi-based Kavita Radheysham would know.

After doing bit roles, and a couple second lead roles, Kavita has now landed a lead role in a film called Main Hoon Rajinikanth. It will release on September 26.

She tells Patcy N her story.

I’ve wanted to act ever since I was in school. My inspirations were Smita Patil and Kamal Haasan.

When I watched Hum Aapke Hain Koun, I went mad. I was in Class 7 then. I promised myself that after my graduation, I would move to Mumbai and become an actor.

My mother and sister supported me.

I did some show pilot shoots and music videos in Delhi. I joined a street play group in Delhi as well.

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'I had a long struggle, and did small roles here and there'

I came to Mumbai in 2006, and stayed at a friend’s house.

My sister helped me financially in those days, since she was working.

I met up with model co-coordinators, and went for auditions, and groomed myself.

I had a long struggle, and did small roles here and there.

'I met director Faisal Saif through a friend'

Vikram Bhatt was doing a television series called Who Done It Uljhan (2010) for Star Plus. I worked there for some time.

I met director Faisal Saif through a friend again. I had seen his film Jigaaysa (starring Hrishita Bhatt, Vikas Kalanatri and Kader Khan). He was working on his next film Paanch Ghantey Mein Paanch Crore (2012), which starred Pakistani actress Meera. He asked me to play the second lead, and I said yes.

Before that released, I was offered a Kannada film called Ragini IPS, directed by Anand P Raju.

'I play a sex worker; intimate scenes have to be there'

Main Hoon Rajinikanth is my first film where I play the lead, along with Aditya Menon. It is directed by Faisal Saif.

I play a sex worker called Mallika. The brothel is owned by Anna, played by Ganesh Yadav.

I am also a social worker, as I don’t want more girls from my village to come to this work. I want to get out of it myself.

Since I play a sex worker, intimate scenes have to be there. But I’ve done that in my first film itself.

When Faisal narrated the scene, I got very nervous.

So two hours before the shot, he took me to another room and explained very nicely and convinced me. He told me it would be shot aesthetically, and not look vulgar.

After Main Hoon Rajnikanth, I have Kannada films like Anand P Raju’s Ranachandi, Badrinath’s Adrustha and Srinivasa Raju’s Basavanna.