I could relate to the character suffering from vitiligo, says Imago actress Aishwarya Ghaydar

We have seen a lot of actors playing victims of a disease in films. But debutant directors Vikram Patil and Karan Chavan preferred to take a more realistic approach for their Marathi film Imago. As the film dealt with a character suffering from vitiligo, they wanted someone actually suffering from the disease. After a prolonged search, they found the character in Aishwarya Ghaydar.

Imago was premiered at the 20th edition of the Jio MAMI Mumbai International Film Festival on Friday (26 October). The film received a thumbs up from a theatre full of people gathered to see it. Ghaydar's performance was especially applauded.

During a short interaction with Cinestaan.com after the screening, the actress, who is also making her debut with the film, said that she was hesitant to sign the film initially. “I didn’t have any experience, so I was tense,” she said.

But the relatability factor played its part as she also suffers from the same skin disease. “As soon as I read the script, I felt a lot of things are related to my life. That’s why I went ahead with it,” she added.

While interacting with the audience, Ghaydar said that she also saw the film for the first time at the festival. “It was a very good experience. While doing the film, I didn’t I know I would manage. But I was able to because of the support of the team and my family,” she said.

Patil, one of the two directors of the film, recently told us the reason for opting to cast an actor with vitiligo. “We had earlier planned to use make-up for the actor who would play the character. But we thought the actor might miss what an actual sufferer would feel and it would look like acting. We wanted to avoid that. We discussed that only someone with the disease should act. That’s why we had to spend a lot of time to find the right candidate,” he said.

He added that quite a few parents didn’t let their child play a character on screen until they met Ghaydar's parents.

Imago is one of the eight films nominated for the Oxfam Best Film on Gender Equality award.

Imago was screened at the 20th Mumbai Film Festival on 26 October 2018.