Actor Sai Tamhankar says she wants filmmakers to look beyond her Marathi identity and offer roles that tap into diverse facets of her talent.

The 38-year-old actor is a well-known face in Marathi cinema with critically-acclaimed performances in movies such as “Sanai Choughade”, “Rita”, “Duniyadari”, “Kulkarni Chaukatla Deshpande” and “Sridevi Prasanna”.

Tamhankar, who currently stars in Rahul Dholakia’s “Agni”, said as a Marathi, she has been able to spread her culture through her Hindi films but now wants to move beyond that identity.

"It’s a pleasure to spread my culture and make people aware of how we live our lives, and what are the traditions. For example, in this film (‘Agni’), I remove nazar and this is a huge part of a Marathi household,” Tamhankar told PTI in an interview.

“These small things are a huge part of your culture and tradition, and it’s nice to spread that. Having said that, I want directors to see me in a different light and for that my responsibility is to do different kinds of work and choose varied roles and I’m trying my best,” the actor added.

She credited filmmaker Laxman Utekar for roping her to play a non-Maharashtrian girl in his 2022 movie "Mimi".

"A Maharashtrian girl was given the role of a Rajasthani Muslim. I’ll be forever grateful to Laxman sir for that," said Tamhankar, who has also starred in Hindi films such as "Love Sonia", "Hunterrr" and "Bhakshak".

“Agni”, which started streaming on Prime Video on Friday, focuses on the sacrifices of firefighters as they grapple with a mysterious surge in fire incidents.

Tamhankar plays the wife of Vithal, a fireman portrayed by Pratik Gandhi.

To portray her character authentically, the actor said she interacted with the families of firefighters, collecting insights about their emotional struggles.

“Some things we have thought and collectively created, there are some inputs that we got from the families. Talking to their families was of great help to build my character.

"I asked them, ‘How and where do they let their frustration out?’ and they said, ‘It comes out usually on the kids’. So, I used that and every little input helped in building the character.” Udit Arora, Tamhankar's co-star from the film, said it is nothing short of a blessing that he got to collaborate with directors like Rahul Dholakia and Homi Adajania on “Agni” and OTT series “Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo”, respectively.

“Working with great directors is that you don’t have to do much, you’ve to come on the sets, and everything is set. In this film, the writing was good, the co-actors were amazing, and most of my scenes are with Pratik, I just had to look at him and (react).

"It becomes very easy when you’ve got this kind of collaboration, things naturally flow, and you are not consciously doing much. That’s the magic and beauty of working with such directors,” Arora said.

Produced by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar through Excel Entertainment, “Agni” also stars Divyenndu, Jitendra Joshi and Saiyami Kher.

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