After a short stint in theatre and web series, Saloni Batra got her big break as she is playing the lead role of a female police officer in Soni which was showcased early past week at the Venice Film Festival and is nominated for the prestigious Venice Horizon award.
Soni is the directorial debut of Ivan Ayr and has Saloni playing the role of Kalpana, a police superintendent who with her colleague Soni (débutante Geetika Vidya Ohlyan) takes on to the growing crimes against women in the city.
It is a journey of two female police officers in their professional and personal space. If Soni is fierce and impulsive, Kalpana, married to a senior IPS officer, is calm and goes by the book. It is about two contrasting personalities who develop a unique bond over a period of time.
The actor who hails from Delhi made her digital debut with by Luv Ranjan’s popular series Life Sahi Hai and It’s Not That Simple on VOOT.
Saloni Bhatia
Excerpts:
How did acting happen?
I am from NIFT where I did a four-year degree course in fashion and lifestyle accessories. I started working in Delhi in one of the export houses but I wanted to join a designer and for that, I had to shift to Mumbai. There I joined a production house and did styling for a feature film which gave me exposure to what goes on behind the scenes.
I was always into performing arts and I used to sing and dance in school and college but acting didn't happen because I was not known to this world nor was I a movie buff. When I understood how things work in the industry, I started giving auditions for advertisements and my first advertisement was a montage for Café Coffee Day.
So, you learnt acting on the job?
As I was already familiar with how performance happens on stage, I started doing musical plays at Prithvi and NCPA in which I combined my passion for singing, dancing and also learnt acting side by side.
I started doing theatre with Theatrewala and did multilingual plays in different parts of the country. I also worked with a casting director for one-and-half years during which we did casting for Dangal . And I had already done a web series. In short, I tried every avenue which could have helped me to come close to acting.
For an actor, how helpful is working as an assistant to a casting director?
It brings you closer to the actual scene. As an actor, you face the audition for a role only once time but if you are at the other side of the table, you can experience the process many times with different people which is a unique learning process.
Also, for a particular scene, if 20 people giving the audition, you'll get to know at least 15 different ways of approaching the same scene. As you work with the director and casting director, you know what they expect from actors and that is helpful in the long run.
How did Soni come your way?
I had auditioned for Soni's part and I was expecting to be selected but after some time I got a call from the assistant director and she asked me to play Kalpana. I liked the character. Though she is facing personal and and professional pressures, she is calm and composed.
The film is not a crime drama or a thriller but a character study of these two women and their journey in the profession. We did a workshop before going the shoot.
How was the experience of the workshop?
The preparation was similar to preparing for a play as most of the scenes in the film are single long takes. As it was a role of a police officer, I had to work a lot on my walk and posture, and had to get the tonality of the character.
You must have visited police stations to understand the procedure...
We used to visit many police stations and met many IPS officers. When I first saw these female cops, they were talking about some rape incident and they were so stern while talking. I was overwhelmed by the profiles of criminals and their crimes but these women were dealing with them daily and they knew how to put the emotions on the side and face any situation bravely.
But beyond work, they were as normal as any other working women who cook for their families and take care of their children.
