Lakshya’s Resilience

In the hypercompetitive world of Delhi University, getting 75 per cent in Class 12 Board exams is the equivalent of a massive social failure. It’s what happened to Lakshya, or Laksh Lalwani from Delhi’s Malviya Nagar. The son of a Tata Motors executive and a former boutique owner, it seemed like the end of the world for the young man. That was until he applied for MTV’s Roadies, which has been the launchpad for many youngsters. Encouraged by his mother, he moved to Mumbai and did a fiction show for MTV called Warrior High. “Every day I was on set, I could see it in everyone’s eyes; I was so bad at acting. I felt humiliated and promised myself that I would spend everything I earned to become better at it,” says Lakshya. So he spent the next few years investing in a three-month course at the acting school Kreating Charakters, working on his voice, his action, and his emotions; then a 12-day workshop at the renowned Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Art Research in Puducherry. He would watch at least one film a day and work on himself for the rest of the day. Some television work followed but two movies he was supposed to act in fell through —Dostana 2 which was supposed to star Kartik Aaryan and Janhvi Kapoor, and Bedhadak which was supposed to launch Shanaya Kapoor. “I guess I was meant for something else,” says Lakshya. Then there was Kill, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2023 to rave reviews, and was theatrically released earlier in the month. The ultra-violent film, directed by Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, was shot over 75 days inside a confined set simulating a train compartment. “The days went on for 13-14 hours, with an additional two hours to work out,” he says. His body had so many bruises and cuts, he says, he didn’t know what was real, what was not. Lakshya’s journey is not merely one of patience and resilience, but also of self belief that acting was what he was meant to do. What next?

Mona Singh’s World

Having played Bulbul Johri in Made in Heaven Season 2, Mona Singh is Pammi, the half Punjabi-half- Maharashtrian mother in Munjya, this summer’s sleeper hit. Soon we will see her on screen as a single woman in search of love and enjoying an odyssey of dating in Prime Video’s forthcoming Maa Kasam. “I am doing lead roles in my 40s, which eluded me in my 30s,” she says excitedly. She had the ability to ride out the difficult periods when she wasn’t getting the kind of work she started with, a lead role in Sony TV’s Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin in 2003. But then courage is ingrained in her, coming as she does from an Army family. “My father was an engineer with the Bombay Sappers,” she says and he lost his foot after stepping on a landmine during the 1971 War. “We’ve grown up listening to those stories,” she says, adding that her mother married her father, Colonel Jasbir Singh, despite knowing of his disability. This kind of upbringing helps keeping things in proportion and life in perspective.

Prashansa Is a Chameleon

She was one of the women who escaped Vijay Varma’s oily grasp in Dahaad. And she was the wallflower maid in the first season of Mirzapur. “I was supposed to die a gory death at Munna’s hands, but Farhan Akhtar saw the footage and refused to keep it,” she says. And thank god for it, as Prashansa Sharma’s Radhiya becomes more than Beena Tripathi’s maid in Seasons 2 and 3. “Raadhiya is completely mesmerised by Golu,” she says, referring to the female character played by Shweta Tripathi. “Here is a woman who doesn’t use her sexuality to survive. She reads, she uses her mind, she fights,” says Prashansa, whose parents run a school in Jhumri Telaiya, Jharkhand. Prashansa was sent off to Welham Girls’ School to study but always rebelled against authority. She then went to Hindu College, where she plunged into its English Theatre Society, then Drama School Mumbai, and finally the Prague Film School. Her Radhiya is a masterclass in how a marginal character can acquire agency. “There are two women empowering Radhiya this season of Mirzapur, Golu who is giving her books to read and Beena who is just letting her be. You see it in her body language and how she changes. In every episode I shed a layer of the old Radhiya. In one episode the bindi is gone, in another I start wearing sport shoes, I wear my dupatta in a different way, not to hide my body, and if you’ve seen the post credits scene, I’m reading poetry and my hair is gone,” she says. The transformation is complete.

BollywoodcinemaLakshyaMona SinghPrashansa Sharma