Auditioning for roles keep me grounded: Kalki Koechlin

Actress Kalki Koechlin at the screening of upcoming film "No Fathers in Kashmir" in Mumbai. (Photo: IANS)

National Award-winning actress Kalki Koechlin, who plays a pivotal role in the upcoming show "Sacred Games 2", has bagged the project after an audition. Despite having a successful career in films, she says she has no problem auditioning to prove her capability.

While the phone call for the audition of the Netflix TV Series came as a surprise for her, recalling the incident, Kalki told IANS: "I watched the show and after a month I got an audition call for the show. Of course, I never thought that I will become part of the show when I watched the first season. I was surprised and excited when I got called.

"Auditioning for a role is quite refreshing because the director should know if I am able to pull off the character I am offered. They might have seen my work so far but if I am offered something different from what I have done in the past, they should audition me. I do not mind auditioning at all."

"I may not have auditioned many times for Bollywood projects but I keep auditioning for international projects and that process keeps it real for me, keep me grounded," added the "Gully Boy" actress.

In "Sacred Games 2", she plays a girl named Batya, who hails from a conflicting background. Her father is a Jewish French and mother is a Palestinian, who abandoned her as a teenager. The character transforms from being a drug addict and a rebellious angry girl to a follower of the godman ‘Guruji', played by Pankaj Tripathi.

The initial outlook of the character has similarities with a few of her earlier works, isn't it?

"I know, there might be a little element here and there from ‘Dev D' or ‘Shaitaan', but you know just because you play a gangster in one film, does not mean that all of them are the same. So my character in ‘Sacred Games 2' is different from the rest of the references I mentioned," she smiled.

What was new about Batya that drew her to the character? "My audition scene was the intriguing point for me, to get drawn towards the character Batya. In that scene, where she is interacting with Sartaj (played by Saif Ali Khan) for the first time, she is calm and has a Zen-like energy, but something is simmering underneath. I loved that conflicting element. Her rebellion isn't in your face but hidden," said Kalki.

Directed by Neeraj Ghawyan and Anurag Kashyap, "Sacred Games 2", featuring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Saif Ali Khan, Sobhita Dhulipala, Ranvir Shorey, Surveen Chawla and Geetanjali Thapa premieres on Netflix on August 15.

(IANS)