A few months ago, Angrezi Medium actress Radhika Madan had opened up about her initial experience in showbiz and how she was asked to change her physical features to get work in the industry and even faced unfair demands. Ask the actress if opening up about such incidents make her feel scared since she is so new to the industry with no film family backing or it makes her feel empowered sharing her story with the world and she says, “It’s actually both.”
She goes on to state, “At that time, I was 19-20 and it was a very impressionable age and when you don’t have any contacts, you feel that they want the best for you. But somewhere down the line, I realised that they were just feeding me insecurities as they wanted to be at a position of power. Once you realise that, you understand it’s not right. It’s really important how you see yourself. You are what you see in people and I really believe in that. So, I felt that I was good enough and I was sure my work would speak for itself.”
Radhika insists that she did not want to be influenced by anything. “I did not want to subscribe to the old age thinking of how a girl should look like. I felt that we are the fresh blood and even Bollywood needed a change. Way back, even my mom used to say, ‘Tu pagal hai, kahaan ye lambi chaudi Katrina aur tu kahaan hai,’ and I replied to her ‘zamaana badal raha hai.’ I asked her won’t she get bored by seeing all the same kind of people? Where would individuality come from if everyone looked like a clone of each other?” she questions.
This was the belief that helped Radhika stand against any such unfair demands. “Whenever anybody would tell me to get anything done, I realised that I would become a clone by doing that but I didn’t want to be. How would I have stayed myself and how would the audience would have got to see something fresh if I succumbed to it? I just believed in that and told everyone that I won’t be doing any such thing,” she shares.
Image source: SpotboyE archive