‘You need visibility in different areas’

Anurag Kashyap’s career advice to Saiyami Kher

Actress Saiyami Kher, who is awaiting the release of Haiwaan, says she has consciously embraced commercial films to expand her visibility among a wider audience while ensuring that the projects she chooses continue to offer her opportunities to grow.

The actor has made a niche for herself with content-driven films like 8 AM Metro, Choked, Ghoomer, alongside mass entertainers like Jaat with Sunny Deol and Marathi feature movie, Mauli with Riteish Deshmukh. In Haiwaan, headlined by Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan, she plays a pivotal role.

Kher credited filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, her Choked director, for giving her an important career advice. “When I was doing a Marathi film called Mauli, I went to Anurag sir because he had become the sounding board. I said, ‘I’ve been offered this means like a commercial film. It’s not a small Marathi, it’s a commercial film’.” He said, ‘Do it because Ritesh (Deshmukh) is massive and he will make a good film’. He said, ‘You need visibility in different areas’,” Kher told PTI.

The actor said she has since tried to strike a balance between visibility and creative satisfaction. “He told me that I’m not always going to get the opportunity to constantly do the kind of cinema I like. As an actor, I should be able to reach and appeal to people everywhere. It really stayed with me. Then Jaat came last year and a film like Haiwaan this year. I feel visibility is important as an actor, but at the same time, I’ve to be happy on a film set. So, if I’m not happy on the film set, then I won’t do it.”