Along with Kirti Kulhari, the young actress Medha Shankar plays an important role in Raj Singh Chaudhary’s Disney+ Hotstar movie Shaadisthan. In fact, the story revolves around her character Arshi’s engagement.
Speaking about how she prepared to play the character, Medha said in a statement, “Arshi is a regular 17-year-old Mumbai girl with average dreams of going to college, making a name for herself, having fun with her friends and living a free life like any other 17-year-old. To prepare for my character, I created a personal, social and emotional life for her as a means to give a certain wholeness to her being and to understand her more deeply as a person. I strongly believe in and stand by the message the film sends out.”
The actress said she could feel the emotional turmoil faced by her character. “I could instantly connect to Arshi's pain, angst and her whole emotional journey through this predicament, which started with fighting her parents, crying, pleading, running away and then finally surrendering to her fate. I would just genuinely feel her pain and despair, and glide into her emotional headspace,” she added.
Medha said that she had a great time working with Kulhari, Nivedita Bhattacharya, who plays her mother, and the rest of the supporting cast. “Most of my scenes were with Nivedita and we got along very well from the word go. We always had our inside jokes going and would always be chatting and giggling off-camera, when Raj Sir, our director would look at us smiling saying, ‘You know I can hear your jokes na?”
Shaadisthan sees Kulhari’s character come to Medha’s rescue. “Kirti is a super chill and fun person to be around and there’s so much to learn from her. I truly look up to both these incredibly strong actors and feel grateful that I got a chance to work with and observe such brilliant actors,” added the actress.
The film also sees Kay Kay Menon make a cameo. “Also, I was fan-girling big time when Kay Kay sir came on set and asked him a lot of questions about acting and improvisation. Most importantly, it has been such a valuable learning experience working with our director Raj sir,” said Medha.
Medha has worked in Gurinder Chadha's British television series Beecham House and TVF's Sketches. She will next be seen in Disney+ Hotstar's web-series Those Pricey Thakur Girls.