Internet’s favourite girl-next-door, Mithila Palkar, wants to take a detour now. Having created a niche for herself with slice-of-life and romantic stories like Girl in the City (2016), Little Things (2016-21) and Karwaan (2018), Palkar now wants to play characters far removed from herself. In an interview with mid day, the actor, currently seen in Disney+ Hotstar rom-com Sweet Dreams, shares her aspirations for the next stage of her career that include playing antagonists, and why she believes that love stories need to be reimagined for the GenZ audience.
Edited excerpts from the interview.
What kind of prep is required for a film that is driven more by the charm of its actors than the story?
I stick to both the director and the writer’s vision, which in the case of Sweet Dreams was Victor [Mukherjee] himself. Having him take me and Amol [Parashar, co-star] through what inspired him to write the story and why he imagined us in these parts, I fed off from that. That’s what I usually do for slice-of-life stories.
After completing over a decade in the industry, what are you most hungry for?
I want to see myself play different roles from what I am. All the girls I have played so far are different shades of me, but I would be excited to be a part of a psychological thriller or play a negative role. I remember when I watched Killing Eve, I was so inspired by that show, I felt this is what I wanted to do.
Have you found it difficult to break the trap that the audience’s expectations can create?
I do appreciate the love that I have received through Little Things. I am grateful to that show. I always say that I don’t think a show like this will ever happen for me again because all of us on the show were just starting out. We all began from ground zero and that show took us to another level. Now whatever we will do next will begin from here. Which is why the show will always be special. We are obviously not going to start from ground level now.
It’s also about comfort, both for the audience and the actor. Some people can get stuck in it [same character type] because they know the audience will love them like that because of which even the makers start envisioning you similarly. In that context, I was surprised by the kind of projects that eventually came my way [after Little Things]. I do deserve to do other things, I do deserve to be seen differently, but unless the makers dare to dream, I can’t do much. Or then, I’ll have to produce something myself. But I am too new on the scene to try that. But I am grateful to all the writers and directors, who offered me different [roles] because stereotyping happens. There’s no escaping it. You have seen Little Things so many times that you think Mithila is Kavya and that’s what you want to see again and again. But unless you show something different to the audience, how will they know that you can be something else too?
You have headlined a few popular romances, Sweet Dreams being the latest one. But a dearth of love stories is felt on the big screen as well as OTT. Why do you think there’s a gap?
Youngsters should write young stories. Romance on paper has to change according to how it’s changing with generations. Even though millennials and GenZ are just a generation apart, we think differently from each other. I feel this about myself. I want to sit with a GenZ person and understand their ways. I feel that many times, I sit on a high horse like the generation before us did and say, ‘Humare zamane mein aisa hota tha.’ But that’s not how it works. You won’t be accepted by the audience if they can’t relate to you. I feel we should keep experimenting as artistes because the audience is intelligent and adaptive in a sense that they will want to see different things if you offer them something different. So, even for romance, there’s no point reiterating what we have seen. It’s nice to have a fresh perspective. To revisit films we watched 20 years ago is going back to your comfort zone.