Stream Asha Negi’s performances in Pavitra Rishta, Baarish, and Abhay now streaming on OTTplay Premium.

 

Excerpts from an exclusive conservation with Criminal Justice actress Asha Negi 

On her early career choices

Reflecting on how her choices as an actor have evolved, Asha said, “That is actually a very interesting question, because I feel when I look back at my journey, how lost and naive I used to be, even like picking my (roles). But even if you’re young, you just want to do work. You want to be famous, and you love the whole glamour part of it. But I think with time, as you were, as an actor, as a person, you want to do more meaningful work.”

The actor added that her current decisions are more rooted in the desire to be creatively fulfilled and pushed out of her comfort zone. “So lately, I’ve been choosing the kind of work that is meaningful, that challenges me, that maybe sometimes gives me sleepless nights, and that charges me up. I see when I’m really, really passionate about something; after this entire journey, the entire process of doing Criminal Justice was so, so satisfactory.”

On Criminal Justice

Describing the personal satisfaction she drew from the show, she recalled, “So many times when I would come back home and call my friends and tell them about it, I could see my eyes twinkling or charged up. The kind of project and the kind of characters that make me feel that feeling are how I’ve been selected for my work lately.”

When asked about shifting from daily soaps to web series, Asha revealed the unlearning process wasn’t immediate. “So when I consciously quit television, I remember going to a lot of workshops; that is where I started unlearning. I remember I wasn’t even aware that I was unlearning a lot of stuff.”

On unlearning

She added, “In fact, people would tell me who have seen me long back during television days, and then that you’ve done a lot of unlearning, and that is the most difficult part, which it is; unlearning is actually more difficult than learning. But the good part is that I wasn’t aware that I was unlearning it.”

According to her, even now, it’s an ongoing process. “Even now, I would be unlearning a lot of things that I learnt back then. Where it’s only when you see the progress later that you realise, ‘Okay, that has happened.'”

On getting typecast

Asha also opened up about facing typecasting at various stages of her career. “When I had initially started working, when I was new, people typecast me then, but I think that’s how it is. That’s how it works in industry, and I don’t blame them for it being easy to see somebody’s work in a box.”

She noted how rarely people are willing to take casting risks. “In fact, today only, I’m talking to a friend who was a director, and he’s like, ‘It is a very risky job to anti-cast somebody, to cast somebody in a role where people would be, ‘What? It is so risky.’ But if it’s actually done well, it would create something really beautiful.”

Recognising a recurring pattern in her career, she concluded, “So I was typecast earlier, and I think I’m again getting typecast now that you’ve asked me this question, and when I’m realising that again, it has started happening but now I feel I will have to take risks idhar-udhar.”

Criminal Justice: A Family Matter is now streaming on JioHotstar.