Ruhani Sharma made her debut in the Rahul Ravindran directorial, Chi La Sow (2018) with a role that garnered appreciation for its sensitive portrayal of a female character. Five years later, Ruhani is set to headline HER, a procedural drama that shares thematic (and titular) similarities with one of her previous films HIT : The First Case (2020), alongside a nuanced gaze whilst writing women, as previously seen in Chi La Sow. Ruhani chats to CE about the apprehensions she faced when signing HER, the evolution of her acting process, her upcoming projects and more
I have to ask you this, since you are also a part of Sailesh Kolanu’s HIT cop universe. Is HER an acronym as well, or is it more of a she/HER kind of thing?
No, this is not an acronym. It is just the word in all caps.
You played the role of a forensic scientist in HIT, here you play a police officer. Apart from the more obvious differences, what would you say are the factors that set these two films apart?
I play Archana, an IPS officer in HER. Unlike HIT, this is not a serial killer film. We are investigating the case of a murdered girl and HER deals more with how this one case my character solves goes on to become personal.
You are the solo lead of this film, which is a first of sorts in your career. Can you speak a bit about how the project came your way?
I was initially very hesitant to take this role. This is a film full of newcomers, plus I did not think I had the star power to pull audiences in for a film. But I watched the short films made by my director (Sreedhar Swaraghav) previously, which convinced me to read the film’s synopsis. I soon called the director for narration, and later, I took up the film, which was actually a risk for me. However, I was excited by the ideas and the fresh approach of the team. I did the film for the experience without thinking of the box office results.
From the title to the teaser and trailer of HER — we do get to see an ethos of feminism embedded in its narrative. Could you speak a bit more about this theme in your film?
We did not set out to make a heavy, message-oriented film. But all around us, we see women get judged for what they wear, who they meet, their lifestyle, everything. People are quick to judge the character of a woman without caring for the context and their individual choices. Our film reflects this through the central murder investigation.
You are seen using guns in HER. Could you speak a bit about the preparation that went behind your performance?
Our main concern was to make the character as real as possible, the tone of the film is such. The emotions were not that hard to crack, but the body language I needed to adopt required me to put in the work. To get that appearance and mannerisms right, I watched a lot of documentaries and interviews of real police officers. Delhi Crime was one of the series I watched while preparing for the role. We were trying to achieve the tone of that series in our film as well. This was followed by weapons and martial arts training.
People talk about Anjali, your character in Chi La Sow, to this date. How do you feel about that film, five years down the line?
That film is a benchmark of sorts for me. People still remember and recognise me as Anjali. I am still trying to break that with every film. Chi La Sow was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, but I do want a role that people will remember me for — with as much fondness as they do for Anjali. Archana is my favourite after Chi La Sow, and I am hoping the audience gives her as much love as they did for Anjali.
From Anjali to Archana, how has your acting process evolved over the years?
There is no particular process I follow. I try to feel what I do. I cannot fake things, so I just tap into emotions. I am a very sensitive person, so I use my sympathy to funnel these real-life emotions into my performances. I was very new to acting when I did Chi La Sow and I don’t remember what I did. I followed my director and he brought out the best in me. For Archana, I used to think about this character when I was eating, travelling, and doing every other work, so much so that when people used to ask my name I used to say Archana and not Ruhani. Thinking about the character to this extent really helped my performance.
You have two really interesting projects coming up — Saindhav, where you will be reuniting with Sailesh and Kanu Behl’s Agra, which has recently made its debut in the Cannes film festival…
Agra is also going to be screened at the Melbourne Film Festival now. We finished shooting the film in 2019 and I am so happy to see it get its due recognition. My character in Agra is very dark, and it is the first time I have done such a role in my career. I can’t reveal much about my character, but I don’t even think it is a human (laughs). It is not a ghost either. I play the personification of desire. I can’t reveal much about Saindhav, except that it is a very meaningful role. There is also another film of mine that will be announced soon, and it might release at around the same time as Saindhav.