Hope people realise actors can change shape: Geetika Vidya Ohlyan opens up on being stereotyped

New Delhi, Jun 8 (PTI) “Soni” star Geetika Vidya Ohlyan says she can “do more” if right kind of opportunities, like “School of Lies”, come her way and hopes filmmakers see her as an actor who can change “shape and form”.

After her stellar debut in “Soni” as a police officer battling misogyny, a house help subjected to domestic violence in “Thappad”, and a migrant worker stuck in COVID-19 induced lockdown in “Unpaused” anthology, Ohlyan said she felt stereotyped as she would get offers to play characters belonging to “a certain class”.

“It is just about the right kind of opportunities being given to people. I believe I can do more and I would like to be given more opportunities, roles and responsibilities.
“I’m hoping for more people to watch it and realise that an actor can change shape and form and (speak different) languages. That’s what their job is,” she said, crediting “School of Lies” director Avinash Arun Dhaware for trusting her with a role diametrically opposite to her perceived image.

In “School of Lies”, the actor plays Trisha, an ambitious corporate woman from Gurgaon running pillar to post to search for her son, Shakti, who goes missing from his boarding school.

The series, streaming on Disney+ Hotstar, marks her second collaboration with Dhaware after “Vishanu” episode of “Unpaused”, Prime Video’s anthology.

Ohlyan said she told Dhaware she would love to work with him again on the last day of shooting “Unpaused”.

“I remember telling him that this is just the beginning and there’s so much more to what we can do together. More than a year after that, I got a call from him saying this is a project (‘School of Lies’) that I’m thinking of. There’s this part that I’m thinking, I think of you.

“I said, ‘OK, I’d love to read everything’. And that is how it began. So it is his courage that after Seema in ‘Unpaused’, the migrant labourer from Rajasthan, he could see me as Trisha, this successful corporate woman from Gurgaon who speaks English fluently,” the 31-year-old actor told PTI in an interview.

Ohlyan, who holds a degree in English literature from University of Delhi’s Kirori Mal College and is a Sangeet Visharad in Hindustani Classical music, recalled being rejected for Ramin Bahrani’s “The White Tiger” due to typecasting.

“I was in the rounds of being shortlisted for ‘The White Tiger’. When my name was recommended for that (film), a very popular casting person said ‘What ‘Soni’ actress? Does she know how to speak in English?’

“So that’s the kind of role that I was being given after ‘Soni’, ‘Thappad’, and ‘Vishanu’ in ‘Unpaused’, you see a certain class being attributed (to the actor),” she added.

The Haryana-born actor said she always knew she was “capable” of doing a character like Trisha from “School of Lies”.

“I knew how different I was from Soni, Sunita (‘Thappad’), and Seema (‘Unpaused’). Now that it is on screen, I hope people sooner than later realise, ‘Oh yeah, she’s an actress. She was acting like a person who speaks that way. She can also act like a person who speaks this way’,” she said.

After a series of intense dramas, Ohlyan is set to star in a family comedy called “Tera Kya Hoga Lovely” alongside Randeep Hooda and Ileana D’Cruz.

“The movie is ready. I’m waiting for people to watch it because it is funny and I’m funny in it. My character in ‘Tera Kya Hoga Lovely’ is like Circuit to Munnabhai. So, I play that to Randeep’s character. Usually we see a man playing that to a man, but here it’s a woman playing that to a man,” she said.

The actor also has Dibakar Das’ dark comedy “Dilli Dark”, co-starring Samuel Ebula Robinson, and “Opium”, an anthology by Aman Sachdeva.

“I look forward to making use of all of my talent and being in things that create healing of some sorts. When my work is dark, I hope it leads to catharsis, and when it is not dark, I hope it leads to healing,” Ohlyan added.