Yogesh Mishra | yogesh@bollywoodtown.in
Anupriya Goenka shot to fame in 2013 as the face of UPA government’s ‘Bharat Nirman’ ad campaign. Some of her Bollywood movies are- Bobby Jasoos (2013), Paathshala, Dishoom, Daddy etc. She is best known for her portrayal of nurse Poorna in the action-thriller ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ and Nagmati in ‘Padmaavat’. In an exclusive interview with Yogesh Mishra, she spoke about her favourite actor, dream destination, viewpoint on #MeToo movement, future plans and more…
Describe yourself in one line?
A bohemian with a value system.
Who is your favourite Bollywood actor and why?
Ranbir Kapoor, as he is an effortless and sincere actor and has a huge range.
What is your dream destination?
Paris!
How do you balance your personal and professional life at a time?
Whenever I am working on a project, I like to focus on the project completely and mostly tend to have no social life at the time. But I always manage to spend sometime with my close friends and family in between. If not they fully support me and once I get a free window, we more than make up for it. Also taking care of oneself personally, during hectic schedules is equally important.
What is ‘acting’ according to you?
Acting is reacting. It’s the art of portraying emotions, feelings, a character by being in the moment and with as much honesty as possible.
How did you get your first break in TV/Film?
It was an ad for stayfree directed by Mr. Pradeep Sarkar. All my work has been through auditions.
What are your current projects?
Couple of web series: sacred games season 2 for Netflix, asura for voot, criminal Justice for applause and few more. Also doing a film, which I can’t talk about much at this point.
Do you think #MeToo movement is going in right direction? If yes then do you feel this campaign is strong enough to give justice to the women against sexual harassment?
I think it’s a very important movement and every such movement has it’s highs and lows and will take sometime to fully take effect and show results. I think the good thing is that people came together and showed solidarity against perpetrators at work place for the first time in India. Some strong and quick actions were also taken. Now how it shapes from here on remains to be seen. Few committees have been set up and organisations have become more sensitised to the problem of exploitation at work place. The good thing is whether the movement is fully successful or not.. people will be wary and little scared at least of trying to take advantage of anyone at work or from a position of power and even co workers will be wary of brushing such incidents under the carpet.
Do you think #MeToo movement can be misused? Can it also be used as one of the tool to take revenge?
Yes it can be misused. It’s very important to see things in the right perspective. Having clear directives and definitions of what constitutes as exploitation or is worthy of #MeToo. One has to be extremely just, responsible and reasonable. More than anything the responsibility lies on the shoulders of us women, to help the movement in achieving it’s real goals, to help get justice to the real victims of serious and deliberate exploitation and to prevent such further exploitation by these perpetrators. If anyone tries to use the movement to further a personal agenda or for revenge, it’s most shameful as it makes the movement frivolous and comprises it’s integrity and takes away from the real victims. Thus risking the safety and sanctity of other women in the future by crippling the movement and whatever it’s achieved so far.
What are your future plans?
To work in interesting scripts with interesting directors and challenge myself as an actor. I want to travel much more and explore new skills. Taking about projects, few web series and a film will be releasing this year.
