Manjari Fadnnis on Miya, Biwi Aur Murder and her new beginning

Actress Manjari Fadnnis enjoyed playing a ‘whacked out’ character, Priya, in the MX original series Miya, Biwi Aur Murder. The show, which also stars Rajeev Khandelwal, has comic elements, suspense, adultery and more. “It is quite crazy… the way it is written. At every point in the series, you are going to find something surprising. You will never get anything that you expected. It’s very light-hearted. Though a lot of things are happening, there is a lot of excitement and a lot of thrill in the series,” she says.

Manjari fell in love with the madness of the script and also her character. “The character that I have played is quite whacked out. I have not played something as fun as this in a very long time, so yeah. My character Priya is wife of a cop, and the cop is always busy. He never has time for her. She is totally bored in the house. Romance is gone. She wants to cheat on her husband, he cheats on her,” she explains talking about her character.

But there is a very interesting quirk about Priya, the character she plays. She loves watching detective shows. From CID to CSI: Miami, she has chewed up every single episode. So she understands crime and how to hide a crime. She has some crazy ideas and how on one night in this dysfunctional couple’s life, they both have to stand together as a team, to stay alive and to deal with dead bodies piling up in the house. “There are corrupt cops and gangsters in the house. It’s full masala. I enjoyed reading this character and I was so excited about playing this character,” she adds.

She also has some kind words for Khandelwal, who plays her husband in the show. “Rajeev is a fantastic person apart from being a great actor. Audience has never seen him like this before… very light-hearted and fun. He’s mostly done intense roles,” adds Manjari.

Manjari recalls the time when Khandelwal had married Manjiri Kamtikar, and how many got confused. “I had random people coming and asking me, ‘hey how is your husband?’ And I was like, ‘huh! when did I get married?’ That’s when I found out that he was married to someone named Manjiri. That was the only connection I had with Rajeev. When I got this series, the director told me to meet Rajeev. He said that it was important for us to get along. He gave me Rajeev’s number. I called him and introduced myself to him,” she recalls.

She was aware of Khandelwal’s popularity, so she was apprehensive. “I wondered if he will be friendly or not. He was so warm over the phone. He said, ‘Just come over for lunch. Come meet me and my Manjiri’. So we met and we shared about how he was asked about me and I was asked about him. Everybody in the industry was confused. They thought that he and I had got married,” she says with a laugh.

The bond ultimately helped them to play a couple on screen. Crime and comedy are big in this show, but so is adultery. It’s not the first Indian web series that has bold scenes or talks about sex. In fact sex is quite a common topic in most Indian web series. Ask if sex is more of a taboo in films rather than in the OTT space, Fadnnis says, “No, it’s nothing like that. Be it films, series or any kind of visual medium, it’s based on real life apart from fantasy shows and all. It’s true to what actually goes around in the world.

“Some characters are written like that which are related to something that some people might be really going through in real life, so I don’t think there is any taboo. There’s nothing wrong about sex. I think it’s a beautiful thing and I don’t think there should be any taboo around sex at all.”

She isn’t new in the web world. After making her Bollywood debut with Rok Sako To Rok Lo in 2004, she featured in many films, including Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na. It was just a few years ago that she entered the web space, and did digital projects like Barot House and Masoom . She thinks that OTT is the second stage of her career. “I would definitely say that. I think that OTT has been a complete blessing, not just for me but for so many actors out there. People are ready to experiment with different lactors and characters.

“Earlier I just had the option of doing films or TV. I knew that I wouldn’t fit into the whole TV space because I cannot play the same role for so many years together.” She also feels that TV would never give her personal time – something that she needs. “So the only thing left for me at that point of time was to do films. A lot of typecasting was happening. Like in Jaane Tu… I played a certain character. I would get typecast in that kind of a role… the sweet, girl next door kind of a role or a girlfriend or wife, but no layers. Nothing was exciting as an actor,” she adds.

“By 2017, I was bored out of my mind, the kind of work that was coming my way. Therefore, I decided that I would not sign anything till the time I got something which would excite me,” she adds. She took a break for two years and used the time to do theatre. “I thought I’d just use the time to polish my skills as an actor. I did Neeraj Kabi’s workshop at that time. I did two really good plays – Double Deal Reloaded and Devdas,” she shares.

Then came Barot House which changed everything for her. “I had done intense roles in my other projects like Nirdosh and Warning. But unfortunately, the films had not worked at the box office. Barot House suddenly showed me in a very intense role for the first time. The film did really well and people couldn’t believe I could do something like that. After that many doors opened for me,” says Fadnnis.

“OTT has been a blessing for me. I have been able to explore more. I believe this is my new beginning now,” she adds. The Adrushya actress is also a singer. The Ga Raha Hai Ye Aasmaa singer worked on two singles which are ready for release. “One song is about letting go. It’s called Alvida. There is another song called Banke Heer,” she shares.

Miya, Biwi Aur Murder is now streaming on MX Player.

Natalia Ningthoujam is a Manipur-based journalist. She knows how to smoothly switch from being a fan to a writer whenever needed. She tweets at @nattynick.

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