Aaditi Pohankar: 'She' has been an exciting journey

MUMBAI: Playing the protagonist in the new web series "She" has been an exciting journey for Aaditi Pohankar. The "Lai Bhaari" fame actress plays the lead character on the show.

Aaditi's character in the Imtiaz Ali-scripted show is called Bhumika Pardesi. She is a lady constable who has to pose as a prostitute to help the police force nab a dreaded narcotics dealer.

"What I understood about Bhumika Pardesi is that she is a timid person going through the mundane rhythm of life, where she goes to work and comes back home. When she goes home, where she is with her family, she becomes her real life. She is melancholic, rather masochistic at times," the actress told IANS, describing her character.

The antagonist is a dreaded narcotics dealer named Sasya, played by Vijay Varma.

Talking about how the two characters are interrelated, the actress said: "Sasya is a catalyst in Bhumika's life in a strong way. As Bhumika goes ahead, she is just understanding herself. From being timid, she is realising that it is okay to be what she is being now and it's okay sometimes to think about Sasya. Nobody is watching her."

In what way was becoming Bhumika a challenge for her? "Challenge is very subjective. It's so much fun! I don't like to go on those scary rides, I would rather go on that ride within my script. I would like to go and not look where I am going to reach but I still want to take that leap, and I want to keep falling down that valley till I feel free. And I feel free at times with that character. Like with Bhumika at times I was just sitting and it did work out very well," Aaditi replied.

"It was not very challenging but of course all the credit goes to Imtiaz sir (Ali) with the great rehearsals that we did, with the amount of talking that we did on it. And of course with Arif sir (Arif Ali, director) and Avinash sir (Avinash Das, director) , it didn't feel like a challenge. It has been an exciting journey," she concluded.

Directed by Arif Ali and Avinash Das, the web series has premiered on Netflix on March 20.