Mumbai: Actress Sonali Bendre, who has been earning praise for her performance in the recently released streaming series Raakh, says portraying a character with very few dialogues was both liberating and emotionally demanding.
Speaking about her role in the investigative thriller, Sonali said the strength of the script made her job significantly easier, as the character was already well-developed on paper.
“I was fortunate to have such an incredible script to work with. Honestly, more than half of my work was already done before I even stepped onto the set because the writing was so strong. All I had to do was bring a few personal touches to make the character my own,” she said.
Reflecting on playing a largely silent character, the actress admitted that not having lengthy dialogues turned out to be an unexpected advantage.
“Earlier, I could memorise pages of dialogue without much effort, but memory changes with time. So, in a way, not having to remember too many lines was actually the easier and more enjoyable part,” she said with a smile.
However, Sonali stressed that acting without words comes with its own challenges.
“When a character doesn’t speak much, everything has to be expressed internally. That makes the performance feel more authentic, but it also means you absorb the character much more deeply. The biggest challenge was learning how to leave those emotions behind once the shoot ended,” she explained.
She admitted that the emotional intensity of the role often stayed with her even after filming.
“This was one character that I found difficult to switch off. There were days when I carried those emotions back home with me, and that was quite unsettling,” she revealed.
Raakh is a fictional investigative thriller set in the late 1970s. Inspired by the infamous Ranga-Billa kidnapping and murder case, the series follows a high-profile investigation that sparks a nationwide manhunt while exploring the complex relationship between crime and justice.
The series is currently streaming on Prime Video.
With inputs from IANS