It was liberating to work on a film like 'Choked', says Saiyami Kher

Actor Saiyami Kher says people always imagined her in glamorous roles but when Anurag Kashyap offered her part of a working middle class mor in “Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai”, she knew she h landed a good film.

Kher, 28, who me her Hindi film debut with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s “Mirzya”, said Kashyap selected her for role of Sarita Pillai soon after ir first meeting, but it took her, co-star Roshan Maw and scriptwriter Nihit Bhave time to convince him to complete film.

actor has been praised by critics for her restrained performance as a working mor stuck in a boring job in Netflix movie, which started streaming from Friday.

“ one imagined me to carry off this n-glamorous avatar where people would, for some strange reason, imagine in awkward item numbers. That's really t person I am. Anurag Kashyap backed me on film when people said ‘why are you taking this one’. He backed me when re were big names saying y wanted to work with him.

“What I really mire about him is that once he gives his word, he will stick to it, which is rare in this industry,” she told PTI in an interview.

Kher, who joined project in 2017, was so determined to get film me that she said she would turn up on Kashyap’s sets to remind him about his commitment.

"When I came on board, he said we will shoot it soon. Meanwhile, scriptwriter Nihit Bhave and I became good friends and he told me that he has been hearing this since 2013. I promised Nihit that I will nag him till he makes movie,” actor said.

Kher recalled how she would get strange glances from Kashyap’s crew for turning up on sets of "Sacred Games" and "Lust Stories".

"I didn’t kw anyone on set except for Nihit and everyone would wonder ‘Why is this 'Mirzya girl here every day?’ n ‘Manmarziyan’ happened. When Roshan was cast, we got him in our team to corner Anurag to make movie,” she said.

process of shooting film was completely different from what Kher’s experience so far, which was to be rey with her lines.

Kashyap, in same interview, said he would t give m lines as he wanted to extract a performance out of improvisations, something that threw actors off initially.

“Anurag sir me it so easy on sets. He would be like you kw what you are doing wher we h lines or t. It almost felt like a big rehearsal and AK would forget to call ‘action’ or ‘cut’ and we would keep improvising. It's so liberating as an actor to get a role like this. It has been completely worth wait," she said.

Kher, who is granddaughter of yesteryear actor Usha Kiran and actor Tanvi Azmi's niece, initially felt insecure about t preparing for her lines in vance but she eventually fell in love with style.

"We will be on set and sometimes t even get scenes because AK would be like ‘don’t give m lines yet’. We were thrown at deep end but once I was comfortable with it, I was very happy. I guess re is some spontaneity that's lost in over preparing."

Some of best moments in film, including a funny scene where she and Maw are arguing with child actor in middle or one in which she is venting out to Amruta Subhash, her neighbour, about her marri, evolved during improvisation, she said. 

Im credit: Instagram/@saiyami