"I've never had any desire to be aggressive, nor have I felt the need to prove anything to anyone except myself," she says. That's Nandana for you. The actress, who will be seen in a ‘different' role in her next film, talks about her love for nature and reveals a little more about herself to CS:
Dare to bare
Film is by nature a bold and transformative medium – bold because it holds up a mirror for us to see ourselves in, and transformative because it has the power to change the way we see the world. So why not use it boldly?
I have never been the one to hem and haw. If you want to show something – whether it's a moment of romantic intimacy, or political hypocrisy – then just show it. Don't apologise.
‘Vet' dreams
I grew up hiking in the White Mountains in the US and biking along the red earth of Shantiniketan. I love waking up to the cacophony of birds, breathing in huge gulps of air that smells of chlorophyll, walking barefoot on sticky dewy grass, getting drenched in fresh, fragrant rain.
I must say I miss all this in Mumbai. I've been to several national parks in the US, and also to safaris in South Africa, but thanks to my latest film, I lived for two months in one of the most gorgeous places I've ever been to — Jim Corbett National Park.
Every day we spent three magical hours going in (and out) of the forest. I felt so superbly blessed when my car got stopped on the road by a stray elephant who took her time to say goodbye, when my food got snatched by monkeys (I went hungry, but it was such a fun and Darwinian moment!), and saw a python slither past dangerously close.
I've always been in utter awe of the beauty and nobility of animals — not many people know that one of my unfulfilled ambitions was to be a vet.
The ‘write' stuff
Whenever I'm not filming, I'm always writing. Three of my international scripts have already been either optioned or made into films.
I am working on two scripts now, which are pretty close to completion — one is a family story about trauma and memory (sounds heavy, but it's actually sweet and emotional), and the other, a really fun children's film about the misadventures of divorce.
Absolutely different, these two, but I'm very passionate about both!
