Actress Radhika Madan who made her acting debut with TV show, ‘Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi’ went on to feature in films like Vishal Bhardwaj’s ‘Pataakha’ and even played the female lead in ‘Angrezi Medium’ with Irrfan Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan. The actor recently opened up to Humans of Bombay about the struggles she faced after quitting TV.
Radhika shared that she auditioned for ‘Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi’ at the age of 17 even though she had an interest in broadway growing up. Radhika successfully bagged the role of the female lead, Ishaani Parikh in the show. However due to lack of time and sleep she put on a little weight. But after hearing rumours of being replaced, she pushed herself to explore her limits.
“At 17, I auditioned for a TV show & within 3 days I was in Bombay, shooting. But it was tough. I barely got time to sleep, which led to me gaining a few kilos. Then, I heard rumours about me getting replaced & that pushed me to explore my limits. So I began working out & lost myself to my character. And I realised, this is my high…this is what I want to do,” Radhika shares.
Talking about her decision to quit the comfort of TV shows she said “I got more TV offers, but I told myself, ‘You’re only 19, if you choose comfort, you’ll get stuck.’ So, I quit TV to do films. I began auditioning, but I faced rejections.”
Radhika Madan didn’t get work for a long time and was told she needed to look a certain way and that she even needed surgery. “I was told I needed to have a particular shape and size, and that I needed surgery. But mujhe toh main bahut sahi lagti hun (but I think that I’m pretty). Who are these people to tell me I’m not pretty? But for the next 1.5 years I didn’t get work. It’s easy to doubt yourself at such a time, but I knew the journey is more important than the destination. So I made an effort to enjoy my auditions! Soon, I signed my first film as other projects followed,” the actor says.
Radhika remembers that once she gained 12 kgs for a role to look older and auditioned for a 17-year-old character, both in a month. The audition, for ‘Angrezi Medium’ turned out to be one of her best and she got the part. “I had only one motto–just have fun,” she said.
“I think the key is to love yourself fiercely because what you see in yourself is what others see in you. If I’d been insecure, people would’ve fed on that fear. So whether it’s as a kid who didn’t care about her unibrow or an adult who thinks her height is cute, I celebrated my imperfections. I know I don’t have to fit someone else’s definition of perfection–I’m imperfectly perfect & I love it,” Radhika signed off.
On the work front, Radhika Madan was last in Netflix Anthology ‘Ray’ where she played a very significant role and impressed her audience in a very short screen time. She will soon be seen in the film ‘Shiddat’ and the web series ‘Feels Like Ishq’.
