Sulagna Panigrahi plays one of the pivotal characters, Radhamani, in Subrat Sinha and Dr. Bodhisattva’s ambitious production Vidrohi. Radhamani is Buxi Jagabandhu’s wife and the show is based in Odisha.
“Vidrohi is about the first rebellion which took place against the Britishers in the 19th century and Radhamani, a very beautiful character. She is full of grace and has a lot of strength. I’m enjoying playing the character a lot and hope that the audience also like Radhamani. Her husband is a senapati. Coming from an army background myself I do connect with her character. I have based this role on my mother, her strength, grace, poise, whenever it came to the fact that her husband had to leave for the border. Most of the time my father wasn’t around, he was posted at the border. So for Radhamani, I have referred to all the graceful, beautiful women I have grown up watching and got inspired by,” she says.
Sulagna adds that the show is different as it highlights unique content. “First of all I don’t think there’s ever been a show on a national level, which is based in Odisha. So that makes it unique and different. Seeing our great Lord Jagannath on the Television really means a lot to me since I was born and raised in Odisha. So it just feels really good and it was the main reason for me to do the show because it helps me to connect with my roots. It is the story of the first rebellion against the Britishers so that also makes it interesting. We all are extremely proud of Buxi Jagabandhu and I feel grateful to be able to tell his story to the world,” she shares.
The vibe of the set of the show is “super chill”, reveals the actor. “We do very intense scenes and the dialogues are also very difficult because they are not in normal Hindi since it’s a historical show. So it is very dialogue heavy and we usually have a lot of dialogues and a lot of drama happening in each and every scene. So we actually make sure that once they say cut, we can all chill and play games and have some fun, cracking jokes. I myself love having a good time. I’m having fun and thankfully we’ve made great friends over here on the set because all the actors are really amazing. It’s just a pleasure to work with all of them,” she adds.
Praising Gaatha Productions, Sulagna says that both the producers are the “sweetest, humblest, kind-hearted people” she has ever met. She also calls them sweet and approachable.
“If we have any issue regarding the character, the scene, the role, we can just go to them and speak about it and we know that we will be heard. We know that whatever we want to say will be given importance. So I think that’s very important because there needs to be a two way flow when it comes to creativity and that’s the biggest bliss for me. I can easily approach my producers and speak to them about our creative process,” she adds.
