Flora Saini: I Haven’t Reached The Phase Where I Need Time to Get Out of Some Character

After starring in series like Gandii Baat, Inside Edge and Bombers, actress Flora Saini is back with another digital series - Gemplex India’s village-based political drama, ‘The Red Land’. The series produced by Vivek Srivastav is based on property disputes and casteism and also features Shalin Bhanot and Abhimanyu Singh in prominent roles.

Flora has worked in popular Bollywood movies like Begum Jaan and Stree, she is a known face in the South Indian entertainment industry. Having appeared in over 50 movies, the Stree actress is now making her mark in the digital space.

In a recent interview with India Forums, Flora got candid about her new series and her experiences as an actor.

What is The Red Land about?

The Red Land as the name goes is a struggle for power and land. This series travels from 1990 to the present day time and showcases how everybody is out to grab lands for power which ultimately leads to bloodshed and that's why its called Red Land. The makers have also taken a lot of inspiration from real life. 

How would you describe your character?

I play a character called Pushpa, who is the thakurain. She is a very headstrong woman who even in male-dominated society during the ’90s followed her mind, did what she wanted and broke the norms. Even though the men might think that things happened as per their will and she lets them believe the same but she probably was never taught what a lady can do and what not. So, she just wants to make her life comfortable and being the thakurain, she uses her mind to move forward in life and also, to get involved in the power tussle and be the boss. Amongst the men, she is a warrior.

Having worked in several movies and web series, which platform do you think is better and offers the best?

All are better. Whoever I’m working with is better because I’m choosing meaningful content. As an actor, you want to do different, you want to sometimes push the boundaries like if I talk about Gandii Baat, that was really pushing my boundary and I totally enjoyed that. Because as an actor when you work so much on your acting skills by attending workshops and acting schools but we are often subject to criticism, body shaming and rejection. 

If you see my graph, Stree was very different. When no heroine would say that don’t show my face on-screen or make me look ugly, I did that. Again, Gandii Baat was different. Every work that I have chosen and choosing are very different from the other and that’s something which I really enjoyed.

Apart from Red Land, you’ll be seen in another web series, Dupur Thakurpo this month. So, how challenging is it portray a character and disengage from it to play some other character?

It is not so difficult for me. I have been fortunate enough to work with good people and characters have not been so hard. I didn’t have to get into the character and I was not even portraying somebody else, my characters were more believable. It required some preparation like on the spoken language and body language. Unlike biographies and period dramas, where you have to completely copy some other person. So, it was not that difficult for me and now I haven’t reached that phase where I needed time to get out of some character.