Kamal Ghorui
Aditi Bhatia, who’s been a part of several popular TV shows and movies, has often kept fans updated with her personal as well as professional life. She recently appeared for a roundtable podcast with Pinkvilla, where she shared about her journey. While recalling the projects she has lost, she mentioned how she avoids going for ‘look-centric roles.’ The actress also revealed being rejected for being ‘too pretty.’While opening up about incidents where she lost roles for being ‘too pretty,’ she said, “To be very honest, I genuinely enjoy being part of the beauty space, the beauty market, the brand side of things. I truly like it. But over the years, I conditioned myself to not take up roles that are offered just based on how I look. I wanted to step away from what I’m mostly known for and do something that would feel unexpected, something that brings a sense of surprise.”
She further said, “Even when I was exploring opportunities before my last project, I was inclined towards roles that were not look-centric. Roles where casting didn’t depend on my appearance, but rather on the performance I could bring to the table. I always wanted that to be the highlight because I didn’t want to be seen as just a ‘pretty face.’ And I know saying that might sound a bit off or even arrogant, but it’s really about wanting to offer more as an artist.”Talking about how she enjoys the beauty space, she said, “While I enjoy the beauty space, I’ve always wanted to go beyond it, and fortunately, I got the chance to do that in my last film. I hope that opens doors to more such roles where people start seeing me differently. Also, I feel most beautiful when I wear Indian outfits. I connect deeply with that part of myself. It’s not like I’m some ‘firang’; I’m very much Indian. I have no roots elsewhere; my entire lineage is Indian. But I do understand that I don’t necessarily fit into the conventional idea of an ‘Indian look,’ and that sometimes affects casting choices because they often look for a certain kind of face.”Aditi shared that while she has lost projects over this reason, it has not happened too often. She said, “Even if my acting is a 10/10, sometimes they still say, ‘We’d rather cast someone who naturally looks the part.’ And my response is always, ‘But I can look the part—just work with me on it.’ That said, these kinds of roadblocks haven’t happened too often. There have only been a few instances where I’ve felt this way.”“I was also very clear in my head that I didn’t want to take up something just for the sake of it. It’s not that I was against doing music videos or anything like that, but I wanted whatever I chose to be acting-oriented, especially since I was kind of starting again in a way. I didn’t want my work to revolve around my looks, because that’s already something people see on my Instagram,” she concluded.
