Anushka Ranjan isn’t someone who likes to confine herself within genres and mediums. You have seen her in films like Wedding Pullav and Batti Gul Meter Chalu, Alt Balaji’s superhit web series Fittrat, short film Gulabi Lens opposite Sohum Shah. Now, she’s all set to showcase her candid self in her latest chat show My Two Bits, which is garnering a lot of love and appreciation on social media. The Daily Guardian recently got into a chat with Anushka and here’s what she had to say.
Q. You recently launched your talk show ‘My two bits’. Tell us more about it?
A. My mother does this show with Facebook called ‘Reel or Real with Anu Ranjan’. It has been doing really well and there have had some 6 seasons of the show. So, a person from Facebook contacted her and asked would Anushka be interested in doing a thing called ‘My Two Bits’ on various films and TV shows. When she asked me, I said I don’t want to critique on stuff that I am not an expert at. It is a proper job so I don’t find it fair. So I suggested let’s do ‘My Two Bits’ on every topic that we can. I asked my sister if she would like to do it. Even she was like yeah let’s do it. My sister and I live together, we are inseparable but we have such strong opposite opinions. We thought it would be fun and engaging for viewers to get two points of view from the same family.
Q. Since your first review was of ‘Indian Matchmaking’, have you been in any such situation before or have heard instances from close friends and family?
A. I have got a rishta once. I was like whaaat! I found it really fun but nothing really happened about it. But I know people who have gotten hitched through a matchmaker and through the whole process of arranged marriage. The whole purpose of doing the first episode on Indian matchmaking was that the criteria basis was my problem. The bio-data that I got mentioned eye colour, hair colour and I was like this is when you go to buy a T-shirt or a pair of jeans, whether it is polyester or cotton or 10% polyester or 10% cotton. I said you cannot do that. Eventually it is a human being. You cannot put these kinds of tags on a person.
Q. Being a public figure on the Internet also comes with a lot of scrutiny. How do you distance yourself from that and keep yourself positive?
A. I think I disconnect really well with things and people. There is one way of saying that you know I think what you said was wrong. I am open to criticism. I am not saying that I am perfect. Even during this chat show, I know a lot of people may not agree and I am fine with that. You can come and tell me that ‘boss aisanahi, vaisanahi’ so I’d say sorry my bad. But when I see people giving gaalis, that’s when I think this person is bored and they don’t mean anything to me. I don’t think even in the next 100 years, I am going to cross them. So, how can I boil my blood over somebody I don’t know?
Q4 Your short film ‘Gulabi Lens’ with Sohum Shah received a lot of appreciation. How was that experience?
A. It was amazing. When I got to know that Sohum was going to be in the film, I had died. I had just seen Tumbbad. I saw it much later on Amazon. When I saw it, I was a fan. I was like wow. This person has worked so hard to put this movie across and it has worked so well for him. Another thing, the script was really cute and sweet. I got to play a character which I don’t know when I’ll get to play in a feature film. So, I wanted to show the world that I can also do more things. Through Instagram, people are always seeing me in my Western outfits or all dolled up. It was a chance to show something different.
Q5 Any plans for Fittrat 2?
A. Yes, there are plans for Fittrat 2 and Fittrat 3. We are going to shoot both the seasons. I am so excited because we ourselves did not expect it. We found out that on the first day of the show’s release, Alt Balaji had some 50-60K subscriptions. Till date, I get messages that ‘we just saw Fittrat for the third time.
Q. There has been a lot of conjecture around your alleged engagement with Aditya Seal. What do you have to say to that?
A. No yaar. I would at least organise a small engagement party since it would be happening for the first time. I would want to do it big. But no, we are not engaged at all. Now since there is coronavi- rus pandemic, so it cannot happen anyway. The rumours are all just rumours.