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| Edited By: Heena Khandelwal |Source: DNA |Updated: Jul 08, 2018, 06:15 AM IST
In her first play, Faezeh Jalali's 7/7/07, Srishti Shrivastava played Reyhaneh Jabbari, a young Iranian woman who was hanged to death after being in prison for seven years for killing her rapist – a government official. Shrivastava went onto perform in the pivotal roles of Mahabharata's Amba and Draupadi in Shikhandi: The Story of the In-betweens (which won her the best actress award at this year's META theatre festival) and the independent, headstrong lead Aarti in Manav Kaul's Chuhal.
Yet, it's Girliyapa (a YouTube channel specialising in women-centric content by The Viral Fever) that she is known for. "I received a message on Facebook from casting director Mukesh Chhabra appreciating my work. There was another from Jim Sarbh. It was really huge for me," says the 24-year-old Mumbaikar.
As one of the millions dreaming of stardom as a child, it was Srivastava's brush with Rajkumar Hirani that steered her in the right direction. When the director visited Mumbai's Sophia College for Women where she was studying mass media, she asked him how to break into acting. "He suggested doing theatre and I enrolled myself in The Drama School Mumbai," says Shrivastava.
Proficient in Bharatnatyam, Javanese and Chau, it was the nuances of acting where Shrivastava stumbled over and over. "It was just a day or two before our 20th show of 7/7/07 when Faezeh finally told me 'Srishti, today you have cracked something. Keep it up'," she recalls.
Once out of college, auditions only brought her a slew of rejections. Among the bewildering biases of showbiz, once she heard over and over was "I don't have an 'ad face'." Till date, Rajasthan Tourism is the only advertisement she has done. "As for films, I have been told that I have a 'character face'. Now with social media, your popularity is gagued by how many followers you have," Srivastava states.
Srivastava's foray into films with small roles in Ok Jaanu and Dil Juunglee starring Taapsee Pannu, didn't pan out nearly as well as her other works. "I am typecast as this bindass girl. Now, when I get the role of a 'funny girl', I refuse. Recently, I was called for the role of Parineeti Chopra's friend in Namaste England. I refused, even though it was bigger than the roles I have done," she says, adding that she has an interesting cameo in Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy.
On the online and theatre front, the actress is also looking forward to a webseries, PA Gals, and was seen performing in Atul Kumar's Detective Nau-Doh-Gyarah at the ongoing Aadyam Theatre Festival 2018. But one day soon, she hopes, she will bag a lead role in a film and it'll be on the basis of merit alone, no biases attached.
