Radhika Madan: Texted my team at 2 am that I’m doing the film

Radhika Madan

Over the months, Sanaa has won acclaim at many international film festivals, including the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. But getting validation from one's home country is a different feeling altogether. Radhika Madan agrees. Her movie recently had its India première at the ongoing International Film Festival of India (IFFI). "People would have thought that we'd be relaxed after winning acclaim in other festivals, but we were nervous before the première. We wanted validation from our country," she smiles.

Sudhanshu Saria

Sudhanshu Saria's directorial venture tells the story of a financial advisor Sanaa, who discovers she is pregnant. Even as she is determined to terminate the pregnancy, she begins to reevaluate her life. Madan remembers that the script came to her, thanks to her Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota (2019) director Vasan Bala. "Vasan sir called and said, ‘Read this script.' I had never spoken to Sudhanshu or watched his films. I read the script late into the night, and at two in the morning, I texted my team that I am doing the film. I am a driven and fiery artiste. Very few projects [give us a chance] to showcase all that we have inside us. Sanaa was that project."

Madan's résumé boasts unconventional stories, from Pataakha (2018) to Kuttey. When choosing a film, she has a particular criterion. "If the character scares the hell out of me, I make sure I do that film," she says. The good thing is that Sanaa, with its progressive messaging, ticked that box. The bad thing is that such movies, though necessary, are not easy on an artiste. In playing an ambitious woman dealing with her unhealed trauma, the actor says she got a chance to resolve her own unaddressed battles. "During the prep, Sudhanshu and I discovered that I had judgments about the character. But the more I accepted her flaws, I realised how close I am to her. The more I dealt with Sanaa's traumas, I healed from within."