The actress talks about how she has learned to separate herself from the characters she plays, as some characters and her grueling travels took a toll on her.
After just over five years in the film industry, actor Sanya Malhotra has finally learned to separate what’s real and what’s real. Speaking about how some of the characters and their grueling journeys affected her, she tells us, “I don’t want to sound like a sadist, but I was the kind of actor who would treat his emotions, especially pain, as his own, so as to give a believable performance. When I play a character for a long time, I start thinking, talking, and behaving like them.”
While she acknowledges the need to separate the real from the reel, the 30-year-old says that won’t stop her from empathizing with her characters. “I need to understand where they come from. My character in Love Hostel was emotionally overwhelming, but I took it as a challenge and pushed myself to do my best. I feel like it brings out the best in me. As an actress, that’s what fulfills me emotionally and mentally,” she explains.
But this experience was so overwhelming that she encouraged Malhotra to talk to her therapist about it: “During the shoot, I remember not being able to sleep at night and feeling restless all day. In fact, I remember collapsing one day on the movie sets. That’s when I talked to my therapist.”
The Meenakshi Sundareshwar (2021) actress believes the idea is to keep herself surrounded by a strong support system to keep her mental health in place. “As actors, we have to do some gray parts, and that’s the exciting part of our job. And when you’re surrounded by the right kind of people, it gives you the drive to take on any challenging part. While I am very thorough with my research and homework, I now make sure to draw that line between the reel and the real thing,” she concludes.
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