Actor Sugandha Garg, who plays the lead in Santhosh Sivan’s Inam , says that the film refused to let her go. “Four years ago, I met Santhosh Sivan to discuss this film. I was even asked to speak a few lines from the script. The film didn’t happen then,” she says.
Later, he was again scouting for actors to play the role of Rajini, an orphaned girl who survives the Sri Lankan civil war. Sugandha got an opportunity to audition for the role again. “The film somehow found me. It was a completely different script this time around. When he saw the picture of me taken during one of my mountaineering expeditions in which I looked lean with bruises, I think he was convinced I could do the role. After three auditions, he offered me the role,’ she says.
Caught in war
What excited the young actor was the fact that she would be stepping into the shoes of a character she couldn’t perceive or relate to. “There is no way the characters I had played earlier and Rajini will ever meet in the real world. I could identify with neither tsunami akka nor any of the other characters in the film. It is basically a story about human beings caught in the conflict zone. It is less about the politics and more about how wars scar people for life.”
How much did she know about the conflict before agreeing to do this film? “I didn’t know the facts of the conflict and learnt about it as an outsider. As an actor, I trusted Santhosh Sivan and did exactly what he wanted me to do. I am feeling the weight of the film only now and I am curious to know what people think of it. It keeps politics aside and looks at how human beings change in the face of wars. It will resonate with anyone who has lived through civil wars around the world.”
Music calling
Apart from starring in many independent films, she is also a musician. Her performance of an Assamese folk song at the Coke Studio was a viral hit. Is she planning to take music more seriously? “I have composed seven tracks I co-wrote with my friends. Someday, I would like to include them in my movies or shoot a music video and release it online or in television. I take my music seriously; I don’t want to make money off it,” she says.
She is currently doing the sequel to Tere Bin Laden.
