Cinema Connect

Madalsa Sharma

Summary

For someone who had always dreamt of becoming an actress, Madalsa Sharma patiently waited in the wings for the right Bollywood project to come her way. The newbie talks about her film Samrat & Co. and why it is an honour to work under the Rajshri banner

Launch Vehicle

The recently released Samrat & Co. was a detective film, which was a new genre attempted by Rajshri Productions. In the film, I play a rich girl, Dimpy, who is a complete romantic at heart and loves her family. When a few strange incidents take place in the house, Dimpy gets in touch with detective Samrat (Rajeev Khandelwal). With his extraordinary skills, Samrat not only solves the mystery but also touches the romantic chord in Dimpy’s heart.

Casting coup

My mother, Sheela David Sharma, is also an actor and has worked with Rajshri Productions earlier, in films like Hum Saath Saath Hain.  I happened to meet Kavitaji (Barjatya) with my mom when I was in the ninth standard. Kavitaji was keen on casting me in one of her TV shows then. When she announced Samrat & Co., my mother took me to their office and I auditioned for the role. They liked my work and was roped in.

Stepping stone

After school, I joined Mithibai College for higher studies. I always knew that I wanted to be an actor, so I also joined Namit Kapoor’s acting lab during the same time. Soon, I got an offer from E.V.V Satya Narayan from Hyderabad, who asked me to audition for a Telugu film, Memu Vayasuku Vacham. I looked at it as an opportunity to polish my skills prior to my debut in Bollywood. After that, I kept getting many Bollywood offers, but I wanted my debut vehicle to be just right. Samrat & Co. was the perfect film and it is an honour to work with a legendry banner like Rajshri.

First shot

The memory of my first shot for Samrat & Co. was full of anxiety and excitement. I was awestruck when I reached the set on the very first day. It was a huge set of an old English villa near a hill-station. I was slightly nervous, but Kaushik dada (Ghatak) made me feel comfortable and explained the shot. As a result, my first shot was okayed in the very first take. That helped me in building up confidence throughout the shoot.

Stumbling blocks

There were no stumbling blocks as such. People at Rajshri are seasoned players. Imagine, they had fixed the release date even before we started the shoot. The work atmosphere was very smooth and organised.

The takeaway

Although I understood the basic technicalities like facing the camera among others, while working on the Telugu film, I was just mugging my dialogues. Not knowing the language was a disadvantage to judge myself as an actor and improve. But here, what really helped was the fact that I was interacting with other actors in my own language and their tips and advice ensured that the entire experience was worth it and very pleasant.

Role model

My mom has been my role model since childhood, both as a mother and as an actress. I am also a great fan of female actors like Sandra Bullock and Reese continued…

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