Amruta Khanvilkar: ‘I’m A Simple Girl Who Wants To Impress You With A Good Performance’

Amruta Khanvilkar has been a household name in Marathi cinema for close to a decade now. The actor, who is riding high on the success of Alia Bhatt starrer Raazi, where she played the older daughter-in-law Munira gears up for the release of her next Bollywood outing, the John Abraham-Manoj Bajpayee starrer Satyamev Jayate.

In this conversation with Sneha Menon Desai, the actor tells us why she's happy to audition for roles even today, how she tided through two years of no work coming her way and the 'sweet' friendship that she shares with actor Ranveer Singh.

ON NOT GETTING WORK FOR TWO YEARS AFTER KATYAR KALJAT GHUSALI

I was very happy doing Marathi cinema, but there came a point of time where good work stopped coming for me. I did a very nice film called Katyar Kaljat Ghusali where I played a Muslim character in a Marathi film. I was appreciated a lot, but there was no work for about two years post that. I knew something was going wrong. So I picked up the phone on all the casting directors I knew. The first one I called was Jogi ji who was casting for Meghna Gulzar's Raazi.

ON WANTING TO INSPIRE MAHARASHTRIAN GIRLS

A lot of actresses come to me and say, 'How do you do auditions now? It is so embarrassing.' But how do we actors work on something? You can call it a look test or a meeting or whatever but you need to audition. Today I have become a household name in Marathi cinema. I know how conservative our homes are. I wanted to incorporate this confidence in all those girls who want to become actors that it is fine to go showcase your talent at an audition and come back.

ON HOW PERFORMANCE-ORIENTED ROLES ARE OFTEN NOT THE LEAD

There was a phase I was doing a lot of song and dance. The good performance-oriented roles just stopped coming and boss! I'm here for performance. I know I'm not the prettiest of girls; I'm a very simple girl who wants to impress you with a good performance. Toh performance kaha par hai? Shayad non-leads mein. Aur shayad isiliye mein idhar hoon. It's as simple as that.

Watch the full interview here: