BENGALURU: After amassing a huge following across multiple social media platforms for her comedic sketches and stand-up, Shraddha Jain recently acted in the latest Ayushmann Khurana starrer Doctor G.
Directed by Anubhuti Kashyap, the film is a comedy slice of life surrounding the medical world. It follows the struggles of Khurana’s character, who is the lone male doctor in his post-graduate gynaecology class. Jain’s character, Dr Kumudhlata Pamulparthi Diwakaran, is one of Khurana’s classmates. As this was her first film, she decided to not take the pressure and do it for fun.
“I thought there was no point being nervous because if I was going to suck at this, I was going to suck at this. And I felt it was okay to suck in front of great actors like Khurana and Shefali Shah. So I decided to just have fun here. And Kashyap (the director) also encouraged me to do that. I soaked in the whole atmosphere because, in my head, I knew this might be the last film I ever do. So why not make the most of it,” laughs Jain.
It has been two weeks since Doctor G was released, and the film has been received positively. Jain is very pleased with the film’s reception.
“These last two weeks have been lovely. People have been telling me how much they enjoyed the film. In fact, a lot of my family members and friends went to the film to watch me on screen, but they came out of the theatre adoring the film’s content. They especially enjoyed the second half, and I’m not even there in that half!” shares Jain.
Acting in a set is not new to her. She had previously acted in the 2017 web series Pushpavalli starring comedian Sumukhi Suresh. Jain feels the experience of working for a Bollywood film is starkly different from working for an OTT show.
“The difference is huge. Especially for me because Suresh is my friend, so we could constantly discuss the nuances of the show and improvise. It also felt like a small, intimate team was working on the project. But in this case, there were 250 people in the Doctor G set. The scale is a lot bigger. I was more cautious. Everything in the film, including its script, was water-tight. The crew knew exactly what they wanted. So did Suresh with her show, but I could take some liberties with her due to our friendship,” she says.
Jain believes she was able to be a lot freer on the movie set than she is when she makes her videos. “When I’m creating my content, the stress level is through the roof. Because then I am only directing my set, writing my scripts, and managing everything else. So, it was very relaxing to just follow instructions for a while. In fact, I hadn’t even seen myself on the screen until the premiere,” quips Jain.
While it was true that Jain was working in her first Bollywood film opposite A-list B-town actors, she made sure to keep herself grounded.
“I never looked at this film as a gateway to stardom and success. I did not stress myself thinking that I need to make a career out of this. That was not the intention then. Even now, I am doing what I was doing before this film anyway. I knew that this movie was not going to change my life. With all that in mind, I had a ton of fun with Doctor G and made some wonderful friends along the way,” concludes Jain adding that currently, she is focusing mainly on her stand-up and plans to do a lot of live shows in the coming year.