Mumbai: Actress Urvashi Rautela, who is set to return as Poonam Mishra in the new season of Inspector Avinash, says the series pushed her to focus more on emotional honesty than visual perfection.
Speaking to IANS, Urvashi admitted that glamour has long been associated with her public image, but the show required her to adopt a more restrained and realistic approach to acting.
“Absolutely. I think every actor who genuinely wants to grow has to unlearn a certain level of performance vanity at some point. With glamour-oriented public perception, people often expect perfection in every frame, every expression, every moment,” she said.
The actress added that “Inspector Avinash” demanded authenticity rather than stylised performances.
“But projects like ‘Inspector Avinash’ demand emotional honesty more than visual perfection,” she said.
Urvashi shared that while preparing for the role, she consciously tried to remain natural and emotionally present instead of appearing overly polished on screen.
“For this role, I focused on being present rather than trying to ‘look performed.’ Real people in intense situations are not thinking about how they appear — they are reacting, surviving and processing emotions. That realism was very important for me to understand as an actor,” she explained.
Talking about her acting process, Urvashi said subtle performances are often more challenging than dramatic ones.
“I think restraint is actually far more difficult than dramatic performance. Silence, stillness and controlled emotions require a different kind of confidence. Sometimes doing less truthfully is much harder than doing more dramatically,” she said.
The actress described the experience as liberating, saying it allowed her to explore vulnerability without constantly worrying about maintaining an image.
Inspector Avinash, which first premiered in 2023, stars Randeep Hooda in the lead role. The series is inspired by real-life events and based on the life of Uttar Pradesh super-cop Avinash Mishra, who was tasked with tackling crime in the state.
The show also featured actors including Amit Sial, Shalin Bhanot, Zakir Hussain and Rajneesh Duggal.
Urvashi was last seen on the big screen in Daaku Maharaaj.
With inputs from IANS