Prajakta Koli on diving into horror with Andhera: ‘It's good to feel uncomfortable'

Indian Express

3 days ago

Prajakta Koli couldn't believe her luck when she was cast in a romantic film produced by Karan Johar. In 2022, she played Ginny, the sister of Varun Dhawan and daughter of Anil Kapoor and Neetu Kapoor, in Raj Mehta's hit family comedy Jugjugg Jeeyo, backed by Dharma Productions. 'When you grow up a very filmy kid, working with Dharma and Excel is a dream you have. You've loved them, and these are people you want to work with,' she tells SCREEN in an exclusive interview.
But when Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani's production house Excel Entertainment approached her, it wasn't for the buddy comedies they're best known for — Farhan's 2001 directorial debut Dil Chahta Hai, Zoya Akhtar's Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011), and Mrigdeep Singh Lamba's Fukrey franchise. What fell in Prajakta's lap was Andhera, a horror show created by Gaurav Desai and directed by Raaghav Dar, which is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
'Even in Andhera, there's a lot of importance given to the relationships between characters, whether it's my character Rumi and Karanvir's (Malhotra) character Jai, or Rumi's relationship with her mom,' points out Prajakta. She plays a paranormal YouTuber who connects with Jai because of the 'andhera' that's enveloping their city Mumbai. 'Again, this is a space of not only storytelling, but also content I've never explored. I learnt a lot about creators who are actually in this space. We had the pleasure of shooting this amazing podcast Khooni Monday with Divay Agarwal, which I didn't expect I'd enjoy as much as I did,' admits Prajakta.
Even though she played a content creator, much like in real life, Prajakta Koli found the experience to be very different from her zone. 'It was just weird to have scripts for your YouTube channel with very big words, like some demons from Australia,' says Prajakta, laughing. 'But when you see a production like this… I'd never shoot like this as a content creator. I'd go near the window and put my camera up there, that's it,' she adds.
Andhera is also a stark departure from the show she's most famous for — Akarsh Khurana's young adult drama Mismatched on Netflix India, full of hope and sunshine. 'There's no sunshine in Andhera, that's for sure,' remarks Prajakta with a chuckle. 'There was so much communication happening during every scene we were shooting. Literally after every other take, we'd go to Gaurav or Raaghav sir because inhone toh show ghol ke peeya tha before we started shooting. We asked them for the motivations, why a character is reacting that way, what's going to follow, what happened 15 years ago that led to this. So it was made very easy for us to adapt to this new space,' she adds, heaping praises on the creator, director, and crew, who she considers the 'pillars' of the show.
'I always say, as actors, we're the last people to get involved in the process. There are writers, showrunner, and directors working on it for a lot of years. We actually got to be a part of the show when everything was laid out for us. So it became very easy for us as actors to trust everything seeing the phenomenal work everyone else has done. I feel very grateful I got to do this,' says Prajakta, who admits that in her early days as an actor, the long gestation period used to bother the content creator in her. 'This used to annoy me or make me uncomfortable five years ago. I was like, 'What do you mean we shoot for 60 days and it releases one year later?' I'd rather upload 60 videos in those 60 days,' argues Prajakta.
'But when you actually spend time on a set, you find it's the easiest for the actors because everything is put in place already. You're told when to come on set, someone does your hair and makeup, someone dresses you up, and then you even get a mark where you just have to stand and say the lines they give you. I'm not taking away from the art of the skill. Obviously, it's a collaborative effort. Now, I've spent a lot of time on set so I understand it. I just feel I've done my job, it'll come when it'll come,' she adds. However, Prajakta recalls it wasn't all hunky-dory on the set of Andhera, like it'd be on a Mismatched.
'It was very different to be on this set from the word go. Also, we just nosedived into shooting. There's nothing in this show that starts soft. Aisa nahi ki chalo, shururat mein inko thoda halke lene do so that they gel with each other. Nahi! I remember one of the first scenes we were shooting was so intense. It was very new, but as artistes, I feel it's good to feel uncomfortable when you don't expect it. We knew when we were getting into this that we'd do many scenes which we haven't done before. So it was exciting and challenging, but we're finally feeling the nerves now that it's coming out,' explains Prajakta.
The woman in her is glad that Hindi entertainment has come a long way, from Andhera, Ramsay Brothers' 1975 B-horror flick, to her show Andhera, an investigative supernatural thriller with two women (Prajkta and Priya Bapat) at the forefront, laced with social messaging like Amazon Prime Video's previous horror drama Khauf. She's particularly glad that the days of the horrex (horror + sex) movies are gone. 'There've always been attempts when it comes to being progressive in telling stories, whether it's this year, 20 years ago, 50 years ago and beyond that as well. I think where it boils down to is where we've reached as consumers. We've had some brilliant stories being told where women were the protagonists without making a show of it, flagging it, or sensationalizing it. But there's a reason why the audience is the mai baap. Unhi ki vajah se chalta hai,' insists Prajkata.
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Unlike her character in Andhera, Prajakta isn't afraid of the dark. 'I'm not scared of the dark, honestly. I find a lot of peace in it. I'll sleep in a pitch-dark room. I'll wear an eye mask even if there's a little bit of light,' reveals Prajkta, who associates darkness not with despair, but with tranquility. She even credits countless late hours for helping her become an author with the romance novel Too Good To Be True earlier this year. 'I do most of my writing after 11 pm because the world goes quiet. I love that your phone doesn't ring and nobody's knocking on your door,' she says, taking a pause, before adding, 'Unless they are, then you should get scared.'