Kavya Thapar who made her Bollywood debute earlier this year in 2022, interacted with The Filmy Charcha and shared her experience of working in the industry. She is well-known for her tremendous roles in South films like Market Raja MBBS, and Ee Maaya Peremito. She also threw light on her personal life and career as well.
How much do you relate with the character in your recently released webseries ‘CAT’?
Mujhse compare karungi toh ye kaafi alag character hai. Par haa, mai agar apni 17-18 years old Kavya se compare karu toh shayad thodi similarities ho sakti hai. So i think, i just had to bring back that side of me, that age of me, because obviously Ginni (her character in CAT) isn’t like me and usme jo noances the vo mere mein nahi hai so i had to adapt that in many ways. There’s an emotional breakdown that character goes through par maine vo face nahi kiya hai kabhi. So apne aap ko waha tak le jaana thoda mushkil raha tha mere liye. Vo bohot si sensitive cheez hai mere liye. And i mean harr kisi ke liye hogi kyuki vo mother se related hai.
Did you enjoy your role and making of the series?
Ofcource yaar mujhe toh bada maza aaya. I really enjoyed kyuki i had the best directors, best writers, best co-stars on board. So it was always an easy process in many ways. And aap khud as an actor apne liye cheeze easy ya difficult banate hai i think. So yeah i definately enjoyed it.
Your last role was from an Comedy Romantic Drama, Middle-Class Love, and suddenly you’re here appearing in an intense Thriller drama. How did this transition happened? And why did you choose this series?
Yaar actually harr character jo mai choose karti hu vo character draft ki wajah se, vo script mein uss character ki kitni importance hai and vo character series mein kitni importance leke aata hai, Vo story ko kaise kaise badal raha hai aur uska kya impact ho raha hai, story line and ye sab cheeze dekh ke i choose my role. Also, content is something that i strongly am inclined to. So, when i played Saiysha Oberoi tab toh mere dimaag mein tha ki yaar bhaad mein gaya koi bhi character ho mujhe toh bass ek Bollywood movie mein kaam karna hai. Tab toh mai ekdam new thi and tab toh mera wahi focus tha. And Saysha is different but look wise very close to me. I looked like a Saysha Oberoi at that time. Bhale ki behaviour wise we were very different. At the end of the day i pulled it off and everything went very well. With Gimmi, i think maine audition diye the Gimmi (her character in CAT) ke liye. Aur Jab maine audition diya tha tab first time mein hi jo director the Balvinder sir, unhone bola ki why dont you come and meet me. Unhone casting director ko bola ki send her and tell her to meet me. Toh mai gayi and he just looked at me and said “You are Gimmi for me. Mujhe bas 1-2 tumhe thoda sa brief dena hai. Tu wapis mujhe audition de aur lets rock it. Toh unhone mera scene badla aur mujhe bol to play Drunk Ginni. Toh jab maine unko vo audition clip send kiya i think next day hi afternoon mein unhone mujhe select karliya tha for Ginni.
Everyone working in the film industry have come with a dream. Be it working with an Actor or Director or maybe to bag some kind of a role. So what’s on the top of your Wishlist?
Definately for me abhi toh bass maine shuruvat hi kii hai and abhi toh mujhe sabke sath kaam karna hai. Maine na kabhi bhi apne aap ko iss dayre me nahi daala ki mujhe aisa hi kaam karna hai ya mujhe inhi Actor ke sath kaam karna hai. Meri itni Haysiyat nahi, Nahi toh mai zaroor saare new-commers ko hi kaam dena chahungi because i think mai bhi uss situation mein rahi hu and agar aap dekhenge toh new-commers actually bohot hi Kamaal kar rahe hai but bucket list mein mera agar puchoge toh i obviously want to be a Imtiaz Ali heroin to begin with. And i want to work with Rajkumar Hirani sir, i also want to do a Rohit Shetty film. I want to do all kinds of movies to be honest. South mein bhi SS Rajamouli sir and aise bohot saare hai i mean. Also, Zoya Akhtar in fact is really brilliant and i want to work in her film.
We’re witnessing that South industry is reaching another level of heights and Bollywood, on the other hand, has somewhere lost its charm. What are your thoughts about it as you’ve worked in both the industries.
I feel its all about story yaar… Aap agar apni audience ko 2 ghanto ke liye bhi engaged nahi rakh paa rhe ho, entertain nahi kar paa rahe ho toh you are not doing a successful job is what I believe! In covid when people had time, they’ve seen all kinds of movies- English films, Korean films, South movies, Hindi movies, Marathi movies sab movies dekh chuke hai and even Punjabi bhi. So logon ne sab tareeke ka content dekha hai aur alag alag webseries dekhi hai ; movies se bhi jyada! Log ab apna samay barbaad nahi karna chahte. Agar aap ab unko wahi ghisi-piti cheeze dikhaoge toh unko nahi dekhna hai vo. Artists ki bhi opnion change ho gayi hai abtoh ki ‘audience kya dekhna chahti hai.’ Plus social media has made it a thing ki aaj-kal sab ek critic hai. So you have to present a well maintained strong story.
Do you think OTT has impacted the Big Screen business?
Umm.. Yes ofcource it has. Another thing that has affected bollywood ya any other industry that isn’t doing well on the Big screen is Jo time interval hai between releasing the movie in theatres and then taking it to the OTT platforms is very short! Log theatres mein isliye movies dekhne nahi jaate kyuki unko pata hai abhi 10 dino mein toh vo OTT par aa hi jayegi. Covid ke time pe toh logo ne apne gharo mein hi home theatres bana liye the. So basically, the story and the content has to be so strong that vo ek insaan ko apne ghar se, apne comfort zone se uthake theatres tak le aaye. Iss maamle mein i guess currently Drishyam 2 is doing a really great job. You see people talking about it everywhere. Adding to which, Kal hi meri mom and mere bhaiya dekh ke aaye hai vo movie and my mom was just speechless and they seemed so excited while telling me about it. They were like ‘Kavya you’re missing out on something really good; you should go and watch it’ Umhone jab ye bola na, jo positivness mere andar create hui thats what i am talking about to bring to the table for the audience. Toh ye jo pull, ye jo power aur impact tha ye movie ya webseries create karti hai apni audience ke liye unke zehen mein even before the release it is something that will make it work today. Par agar aapke paas vo content nahi hai na toh vo first day ke baad chalegi hi nahi. However, Hume aur aisi movies deni chahiye jo public ko mujboor karde apne comfort zone se, apne ghar se uthakar theatres tak aane ke liye.
As you said earlier, you want to work in every genre, in every kind of movie, Lets suppose you’re casted in a Hollywood movie. What will be the reason that they would have casted you?
Pehle toh i think meri beauty se attract honge thoda sa (laughs) I think vo hoga thoda sa and uske baad unko lagega ki chalo sundar bhi hai aur performance wise bhi acha kar leti hai, she can act. And obviously harr insaan ek insaan ko ek character ke nazariye se dekhta hai. Agar aap kaam kar rahe hote ho toh aap pehle character ke nazariye se hi dekhte ho. Toh if i fit the character properly look wise, performance wise toh uss basis pe mai fit houngi.
On the work front-
Kavya has recently appeared in a Netflix webseries entitled ‘CAT’ which is an Thriller drama and is bagging immense amount of love and appreciation. The series also has Randeep Hooda, Suvinder Vicky, Hasleen Kaur, and many other actors in it. Kavya has three films lined up which of One is Tamil and other two are Telugu, both of which she is quite pleased about. In addition, we would also get to see her in one of the Amazon web series.