Lara Dutta: I will probably be limiting myself enormously if I simply take a look at enjoying lead characters

Actor Lara Dutta says she is at a stage in her profession the place she is searching for characters that promise to go away an enduring impression relatively than chase prime roles.
Lara Dutta has been working within the trade since her big-screen debut in 2003 with Andaaz and has featured in a number of profitable movies within the final 20 years.
In an interview with PTI, the actor mentioned what will get her to board a mission in the present day is the script, the individuals concerned in mounting it and the scope it has for her to attempt one thing new. That is why, she mentioned, even a movie like BellBottom which was headlined by Akshay Kumar, bought her excited as she bought to play the function of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
“It is the content that is being made, what the character is doing is what excites me. I have gone long past the phase where I want to play the lead or the prime character, because at the end of the day, I genuinely feel you will be limiting yourself greatly if you are going to come with that mindset.”

“There are some incredible characters that leave an indelible mark on your mind, long after a show or a film is over. Playing Mrs Gandhi in BellBottom is a fine example, where the film was led by a top hero. But I knew if I had the opportunity to play her, I would do it in a way she would never be forgotten on screen,” Dutta mentioned.
The 43-year-old actor mentioned she isn’t simply eager to experiment together with her characters but in addition swap genres within the digital area, since her OTT debut in 2020.
While her debut sequence Hundred featured her as a cop, her 2021 follow-up with Hiccups and Hookups noticed her within the function of a single mom navigating the world of courting.

She is now gearing up for the discharge of her third OTT outing, Kaun Banegi Shikharwati, which stars Naseeruddin Shah as an eccentric king in seek for his inheritor obvious – one amongst his 4 daughters, performed by Dutta, Soha Ali Khan, Kritika Kamra and Anya Singh.
Directed by Gauravv Chawla of Baazaar fame and Ananya Banerjee, the sequence follows the daughters, as they compete in a sequence of royal video games, the winner of which will probably be chosen as ‘king’.
Dutta, who performs the eldest daughter Devyani within the ZEE5 sequence, mentioned since her character already considers herself because the inheritor obvious, she finds combating for the throne “completely bizarre”.
“So their coming together to play these games with each other, leads to a lot of comedy, fun and quirkiness. I loved the opportunity to step into a world like that. Have this crazy family led by an eccentric king,” she added.
For the previous Miss Universe, who was born in Uttar Pradesh and later lived in Bengaluru and Mumbai, understanding the world of royalty was not a activity. She mentioned she has seen that life by means of her associates, who’re members of royal households.
“They live in fancy areas of Mumbai and Delhi, lead a cosmopolitan life but the moment they go back to their kingdom and principalities, they have to wear these saris with ghunghats (veils). They live in a different world for that amount of time that they spend there. These royal families do exist, who are caught in a time warp. They exist in their own little world which is separated from reality,” she added.
But the sequence, backed by Applause Entertainment in affiliation with Emmay Entertainment, follows the lives of a fictional royal household by means of humour, she mentioned.
“The show sounded quirky, fun, and different from anything that was on the OTT space already. We have seen a lot of dysfunctional families on screen before but this is set in a dystopian setting… Almost in a Wes Anderson type of a world.”

The sequence additionally gave the actor a possibility to star alongside performing greats like Shah and Raghubir Yadav, Dutta mentioned.
The concept to share display area with the veterans was initially “scary as hell”, she added.
“I have a line on the show, where I look at Raghubir ji and Naseer saab and say, ‘Kya tum dono buddhe paagal ho gaye ho?’ (Have both of you old men lost your mind). I was like, I just can’t say this to them, I said ‘Can we please rewrite it?’ But both of them were like, ‘Just have fun with it.’”

“There is a tremendous amount of nervousness and anxiety when you are facing an actor like that. Naseer saab is lightyears ahead of us in terms of his craft. But what an incredible opportunity to watch, learn, observe and imbibe. One of the biggest reasons for me to do the show was that he was in it,” she added.
Kaun Banegi Shikharwati will premiere on January 7.