Actress Kritika Kamra has been experimenting with her OTT outings since 2021. After Tandav, Kaun Banegi Shikharwati, Hush Hush and Bambai Meri Jaan comes Gyaarah Gyaarah on ZEE5. In a candid chat, Kritika talked to us about the series that also stars Raghav Juyal and Dhairya Karwa, and how she went about playing cop Vamika Rawat.
What was your reaction when you first learned about Gyaarah Gyaarah?
Kritika Kamra: I learned that they were making a police procedural drama. My first reaction was that we've seen so many nice ones of late. Do we need another police procedural drama? But when I learned about the concept and read the script, I realised the USP of the show is this time travel, sci-fi connect. And that's a space that hasn't been explored in Hindi cinema and web series before. That made this one compelling. It is a completely different spin on a regular procedural drama.
Here, the intel coming to you is not just from evidence and witnesses in the present but from a police officer who was investigating this case almost 15 years ago. So that changes everything, and these two timelines can connect. If we change anything in the past, something in the present is going to change. It goes into an unreal, surreal space that we have not explored before and I was fascinated by it.
Tell us about the world where Gyaarah Gyaarah is set in.
Kritika Kamra: It's a land of fantasy, almost. The show has got a little bit of a sci-fi element where two timelines are connected when the clock strikes 11:11, two walkie-talkies mysteriously connect, and they're in two different decades — 1990 and 2016. It's an extraordinary phenomenon placed in the hills of Dehradun, Mussoorie, in winter. It is set in the land of folklore where we've already, in our culture and mythology, questioned the concept of time again and again. It just made sense for the story to be based there.
Does it feel any different or special when you wear the uniform of any armed forces for a character?
Kritika Kamra: I've heard this from many actors that there is something about the uniform that transforms you. I can now attest from my personal experience that it happens. When you wear a uniform, a certain physicality automatically comes. You're upright. You walk differently, you talk differently. You suddenly feel a sense of purpose. You feel a sense of responsibility. There's a command in your body language.
I also think that because we look up to people in uniform since they are real-life heroes, we also assign this pride with that look that one doesn't take lightly. That’s what I felt with this one. It is a pulp show but not a show where cops are having fun. This is very realistic. It had to be done with a certain responsibility of representing these people well and as they are.
Tell us something about your character Vamika Rawat.
Kritika Kamra: There are two cops, played by Dhairya Karwa and Raghav Juyal, who are in different timelines and communicating. My character is present in both timelines. In the past timeline, where Dhairya is an inspector, Vamika is a young recruit who has joined the police force. She has big dreams of proving herself in this job and is nervous, but she's still trying to find her feet. She looks up to her mentor and also has feelings for her mentor.
In the present timeline, 15 years have passed, and Vamika has worked up the ranks to become the DSP. She's heading that station and has a team under her that has been assigned the job of solving old cases that have been buried for almost 15 years. In the present timeline, Vamika is a more commanding and a very no-nonsense officer because she's done this job for years.
It was a great experience to play almost two lives of the same character. It was almost like playing somebody's prime time, like 15 years. It was a great immersive experience for me because I almost felt like I lived this character.
Did you do anything differently while playing the character in two timelines 15 years apart? Was there a switch?
Kritika Kamra: No, there was no switch. But I was mindful about making the character look like the same person. At the same time, they are almost like two different characters because 15 years have passed. From 20 to 35, this age group is such that I didn't have many physical things to lean on. These are not ages where I can grey my hair, change my walk, or get some prosthetics to start looking like a different person. These changes had to be very subtle and more behavioural than the looks we. That had to come through in the body language.
When you see my character in the past, you can sense from her body language that she's nervous. She's a little slouchy. Every time her mentor comes in, she's trying to look strong. In the present timeline, she has to look like she's in command. A lot has happened in her personal life too. She carries an inner grief. She's never been truly happy. She's lonely. That had to be there in her body language.
The switch comes from the visual language, which is different in the two timelines. The tone is different, the geography is different, and the production design is different. Even though I'm in uniform, the uniform is different because the ranks are different. These things help.
What’s a scene or a sequence that you are proud of acing in Gyaarah Gyaarah?
Kritika Kamra: I fully rely on the director. If he is happy with the take, then I'm happy. Otherwise, I have no objectivity whatsoever. But Umesh (Bisht, director) sir and many people on the set mentioned a scene towards the end of the series, where I go to Raghav's character and plead with him to tell me what he knows about the past that I don't. Because though I'm not privy to this phenomenon of walkie-talkies, I know that something is up. That scene was complex on multiple levels. You see a vulnerable Vamika that you've never seen before. It was a complex, multi-layered scene, and Umesh sir was happy with the way I performed it.
What was your first day of shoot like on Gyaarah Gyaarah?
Kritika Kamra: There is an action sequence in a hospital where I am almost strangled. There was an action director. We choreographed the sequence and performed it. But we weren't really sure of how intense that could get. Every action was not written. It was evolving at the moment what this person has around him and what he can use to attack me. So, he grabbed a landline phone and with its wire, he tried to strangle me. And that was a very intense scene to shoot.
My co-actor was really good. He asked me multiple times, ‘Are you okay?’ I said, ‘I'm okay. Just go for it.’ And he did. They had called for a body double for me as a safety measure. But I did it all myself. When that got over, everybody on set clapped. That was my first day of the shoot. That was quite a start.
What are your favourite police procedural dramas or crime dramas?
Kritika Kamra: Mindhunter on Netflix is one of my all-time favourite shows. I enjoyed Baby Reindeer (Netflix) too. I thought it was a very brave show; disturbing but explored the psychology of a stalker. A very complex portrayal of a stalker, and just that whole dynamic is bone-chilling. There’s a courtroom drama called Landscapers starring Olivia Colman. It's a really niche show.
What are your five all-time favourite female characters on screen?
Kritika Kamra: Shabana Ajmi in Ijaazat (1987). Tabu in Maqbool (2003). Actually, Tabu in anything. Konkona Sensharma in Wake Up Sid (2009). More recently, Alia Bhatt in Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022). Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Fleabag (2016-2019). And Olivia Colman and Meryl Streep in anything.
After Gyaarah Gyaarah, what are you shooting for next?
Kritika Kamra: I'm currently shooting for two shows. One is Matka King for Amazon Prime Video. Nagraj Manjule is directing it and Siddharth Roy Kapur is producing it. Then there is another show called For Your Eyes Only. It's a spy drama for Netflix that Bombay Fables is making. Matka King has Vijay Varma; For Your Eyes Only has Pratik Gandhi.