Mumbai– Actress Rajshri Deshpande, who has been receiving positive response for her portrayal of Shobha Trivedi, a homosexual cop in the recently released web series ‘The Fame Game’, credits her experience of working as a social activist for sketching her character in the show.
She has been working with the LGBTQ+ community and that kind of brought in a certain perspective for her character in the show.
Talking about her prep and the research process for her role in ‘The Fame Game’, Rajshri informs, “Along with being an actor I am a social activist too, and have founded the NGO ‘Nabhangan Foundation’ five years back, through which I closely work with LGBT Community, especially in Mumbai.”
She adds, “I know what kind of difficulties, mental trauma they go through especially for acceptance from society, including their families, friends and difficulties they face in their day to day life like earning their livelihood, etc.”
The actress considers it an honour to portray an LGBTQ+ person on screen, “Since I have worked with LGBT community and their families, it was an honour and opportunity for me to portray them on screen, which was of course very challenging as I had to break the stereotype and create a new world of imagination for my audience, where all my people from LGBT community can live with respect and honour.”
She continues, “On playing Shobha Trivedi, I’m often asked about how I embodied her since she is a bold character. But I choose to respectfully differ on the perspective here. Honestly, I don’t understand why we label certain characters as bold and brave just because they haven’t been represented enough in mainstream media.”
However, playing such a character was not something challenging or different for her as she regularly interacts with people from the community. Hence, she has a better understanding of their psychology.
The actress says, “For me it was no different than getting into the psyche of any other character because these are the people I see in my everyday life, who acknowledge and honour their vulnerabilities, strengths and complexities alike. Acceptance does not always have to be loud to raise a point.”
“Sometimes to stand out we just need to blend in and fix the binaries of the ‘normal’ that exists in the society. That I feel is the key to reclaim what has been denied to certain communities and to create more equal and safe spaces for every single person,” Rajshri concludes.
During Covid pandemic time, team Nabhangan worked with more than 30 villages and the whole team is replicating Pandhari village and working with all those villages to make them self-reliant. (IANS)
