Shreya Dhanwanthary on 'Scam 1992': Hansal Mehta wanted prepared actors, not robots

Actor Shreya Dhanwanthary says starring in director Hansal Mehta's web series "Scam 1992 - Harsh Mehta Story" gave her opportunity to sink her teeth into a character, something "very assuring" for an upcoming artiste.

"Scam 1992" follows life of stockbroker Harsh Mehta, played by Pratik Gandhi, who single-handedly took stock market to dizzying heights, and his catastrophic downfall.

10-episode series is based on journalists Debashis Basu and Sucheta Dalal's book " Scam".

On show, Dhanwanthary plays Dalal and recalls how she listed herself for auditions minute she heard Mehta is working on project.

Dhanwanthary, who earned acclaim in Amazon Prime Video series " Family Man" last year, gave an audition to a seven-p scene and knew show would offer "immense scope" to her.

"Hansal was very clear, he said he didn't want to hire robots. He doesn't want to tell people what to do. He expected his actors to come on set prepared. That was so assuring," actor told PTI.

She said she always mired Mehta's ability to chronicle human stories "beautifully" but when she started working with "Aligarh" director, she understood his process of extracting best from his actors.

"He told Pratik and I to t be caricatures. He didn't want any imitations. His focus was more on internalising performance so that we live and brea character. We worked on that for six to eight months and n went on floors." show, currently streaming on SonyLIV, happened to Dhanwanthary two months after release of her Bollywood debut "Why Cheat India", starring Emraan Hashmi, in 2019.

For her preparation, actor relied on archival foot, online research and a meeting with Dalal to understand finer nuances of personality.

" idea of being in this profession is so that you don't repeat yourself and put yourself in shaky grounds. I thought this role was doing all of that in a great way. It was a privilege to be playing her but was also so nerve-wracking." While actor's successful turn as an intelligence officer on " Family Man" was widely ticed and her ability to go extra mile found her Mehta project, Dhanwanthary said she is still an "auditioning actor".

"People of a certain stature and definitely a certain surname afford to get scripts to decide if y want to do it or t. I don't think that exists for a lot of people. I hope going forward I get more opportunities to get something I can sink my teeth into." actor said being "dynasty based" isn't an industry-specific problem as it continues to be mindset of many in country.

entertainment industry doesn't function on "meritocracy" and re's more focus on how one looks rar than craft, she ded.

"y say 'give us look, will take care of acting'. It's a scary mentality. I hope we all get opportunities because we can't sink our teeth into anything if we don't get a chance. I'm grateful se wonderful filmmakers took a chance on me." Produced by Applause Entertainment in association with Studio Next, "Scam 1992" is apted by dialogue writers Sumit Purohit, Saurav Dey, Vaibhav Vishal and Karan Vyas.

(Im: Instagram/shreyhan13)