Harleen Sethi began her acting career with the short, Country Of Bodies: Bombay In Dance in 2013. In 2018, she shot to fame with the web series Broken But Beautiful. Currently, she is basking under the success of her latest release, Kohrra, which is currently streaming on Netflix. Her portrayal of Nimrat, a woman trying to step out of an unhappy marriage, sharing a complicated relationship with her father and trying to lead life on her own terms, has been winning her raving reviews.
In an exclusive chat with Apna TPO, Harleen reveals that the wait to get the right kind of characters was a long one. Her patience was particularly tested in the last couple of years which led her to say yes to many projects. “I do very selective work. This industry teaches you how to be patient. Last year, I did two-three shows because I really wanted to do them. But I did other shows too in between them to fill the gaps whenever I was free. I did some for money and I did some because I got the chance to work with a good team,” she recalls.
But this hasn’t always been her mindset. Following the success of Broken But Beautiful, she had made up her mind to only do quality work but it was the pandemic that led her to take some very different decisions. “After Broken But Beautiful, I was very patient and I wanted to only focus on doing good work. But after two seasons, I was sitting at home due to Covid and I got impatient. I just wanted to be on a set, enjoy myself and do all kinds of work knowing fully well that some will be good and some won’t,” she shares candidly.
Harleen, however, through experience realised that the idea to do more work as opposed to meaningful work isn’t the right call to take and Kohrra reinforced the thought. She tells us, “After doing all of that, this year, I realised that you can’t do everything because that takes a toll on you, emotionally. From the end of last year till now, I’ve hardly done anything because I don’t have anything left in me. To do a show like Kohrra and play a character like Nimrat take a lot out of you and is very draining. I realised that I’m not going to repeat the same mistake.”
In an industry that’s largely driven by competition and insecurities, Harleen has now come to understand that being choosy and not pushing herself too hard is key. Talking about it, she opines, “It’s not necessary to work during any break that you get. It’s important to do good work even if you do less work because it’s an emotional job. It’s not just physically taxing but emotionally too to put yourself into a new character.”
She further adds, “This is something that I learnt and that’s why I said that this industry teaches you to become patient. Having said that, good roles are very far and few. If I had a magic wand, I would want to play the titular part in many more projects.”
As for Kohrra, it proved to be a learning curve for her and helped her grasp how women get bogged down due to social conditioning. Shedding light on the impact it had on her, she says, “It’s liberating to just choose yourself because you realise that things will soon come around if you’re happy. The goal in life should be to do things that make you happy and put yourself first, which a lot of women aren’t conditioned to. We all put other people’s needs first and then think of our own. Here’s a character who tried doing that but wants to live for herself now. I found that to be very beautiful. Nimrat reminded me that I need to do the same.”
