Two years after actress Vishakha Singh had wrapped all her film commitments to devote time to her business venture Iconic Bot (a fan management tool), Mrigdeep Singh Lamba, the director of Fukrey wanted to cast her in the film’s sequel. That Fukrey meant a huge emotional connect to Vishakha didn’t have her thinking twice. “I saw it as an opportunity to meet my friends. That was a huge driving point. We (Pulkit Samrat, Varun Sharma, Ali Fazal, Manjot Singh, Priya Anand and Richa Chadda) all started our careers together, it was like the friendships in school and college. The bonding is pure and it was easy to get back onto the sets.”. He had mentioned it would be a brief role, she replied it was brief even in the original. The entertainment quotient in the film amazed her so much that the length of the role wasn’t of great concern to her.
Getting back into the same character after a four year gap wasn’t all that difficult. “With every character, once you play it out, a part of it becomes you. It was easy to switching on to the same part. Neetu here is more modernised in terms of appearance. I liked the ethnic wear and her simplicity in the first part too.”
What she liked about Fukrey in both parts is that they are non-starrers and are all about the characters. Besides enjoying it as a spectator, she continues to receive Happy Teachers Day messages for her role as an accounts teacher in the first part. “With the second part’s narration too. I was eager to know what my next scene was. I was laughing all along but I was mentioning my director, this is bizarre and you’d still managed to convinced me.”
After being actively involved with a business venture, she found acting easy and kept wondering why did she leave this? “As an actor, you’re pampered, you’ve someone carrying your bags, saying your lines and taking care of you. For somebody who isn’t so mature, this environment could make you live in a bubble. It was a good break from my responsibilities.” The rough edges post a three year gap didn’t hurt, for she felt secure in her space. “I know my strengths and weaknesses, I know I can’t be a glam doll. It’s better to do one film that stays with you than being identified for mediocre films where you might not even get paid.” That she had the liberty to reject scripts after her sporadic gaps between projects speaks enough of that.
But for a rare Dhoom, Singham, Golmaal or a Munnabhai over the years, not many sequels have managed to hit the bull’s eye. “The problem with many sequels is the notion that we’re so big and we need to maintain that. It’s difficult to generalise, but one needs to enjoy the script-writing process and developing it more, rather than milking it and trying to make it into a money churning machine.”
She points this as a reason why Fukrey Returns took long to come and remembers the number of drafts that she went past. Every film has its own destiny, she feels and buys the opinion there might be a section of audience who may not believe in the genre like Fukrey in 2017 anymore. “I think it’s good to enjoy the space and lets see what happens.”
Besides acting, Vishakha has co-produced a few short films that have dealt with social stigmas, an aspect that intrigues her. “That brought me on board for Mehram , a story that advocates for a woman’s right to pray, starring Farida Jalal. I think gone are the days where you can do only one thing and excel at it. We’re all doing multiple things at once.”
Yet she points out her life revolves around the film industry. Her venture deals with the conversion of fan-base to ticket-buyers, something that a producer aims to do before every film. “Unfortunately, social media limits our reach. We tested our product on Mersal first and saw great results, ending up selling 8000 tickets on Messenger.” Besides being selected among the top 10 women entrepreneurs in a survey by a top US university, she’s also slated to produce a Marathi and a Hindi which will go on floors soon. “It’s a lot of multi-tasking. As an actor, I hate hard-selling myself,I’ve never messaged producers or directors for a role. It’s contrasting that I’ve to go all out to sell my product everyday as an entrepreneur,” she signs off.
