Masaba Gupta surprised everyone a few years ago with her natural act in front of the camera in the part fact-part fiction web series Masaba Masaba. Recently, the 34-year-old fashion designer forayed into the realm of voice work, lending her voice to Lisa Cartwright, one of the main characters alongside Kareena Kapoor Khan's Black Widow in Audible India's ambitious Marvel's Wastelanders. t2 caught up with Masaba for a chat on her new stint and more.
You act but voice work is a completely different ball game. What was your reaction when you were approached to voice Lisa Cartwright?
I was surprised but I was also very happy that people were thinking of me for different things. The challenge for anyone who has been a public figure, in any sense of the word, for 10-plus years is how do you get people to see you differently? And for me, that was the biggest surprise and a very happy moment. So I was happy that I could do it but yes, this was a challenging entry into the world of voice artistes.
You are always up for a challenge, right? I don't think you would have it any other way...
I do like being taken care of and getting everything my way once in a while... that would be nice too (laughs). But I do love a challenge. I am somebody who keeps going because something new is always around the corner. I guess the universe, in some way, listens and responds to that. It always puts me in the best place possible for that challenge. One thing is to be given a challenge and the second is to be in a position to accept it and I have always somehow been in a position to accept it.
Were you aware of Marvel's Wastelanders before you were approached for it?
Well, no. I have been a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What they have done through Wastelanders is that they have opened up doors for many more characters, and Lisa Cartwright is one of them. It is one of those things that I have always wanted to do. There is also a trust factor involved when somebody like Marvel decides to enter another dimension, in this case, audio. So because there is so much faith and there is a very strong foundation that has been established as to what the storytelling will be, you know that it will be good, whether it is audio or video.
With Marvel, one has a base that is larger than life. How to make it larger-than-life on audio is always a challenge but I think we have managed to do that well here.
What were the highlights of this experience?
We didn't have a visual reference. Lisa Cartwright could be a short, stubby girl who has a ponytail or a top knot. Or she could be super fit. Is she a model? What is her background? What is her physicality?
Usually, we give personality and colour to everything that we do through a physical shape or a visual. But in this case, it was a clean slate. We had to build the world, build the character, and give it colour and voice. That, to me, was very challenging. Take the fight scenes, for example. Something as simple as saying: 'Oh, this character is now climbing a flight of stairs and she is huffing and puffing' is so challenging because you are physically so limited. You are in a recording studio and you are not dressed up like that character. Sometimes, even when you wear a costume in front of the camera, you immediately embody that character. Here it was like: 'Okay, at what point do I slip into Lisa Cartwright and at what point am I not Lisa Cartwright?'
Kareena (Kapoor Khan, who voices Black Widow) and I recorded separately and I was worried about that because we (Black Widow and Lisa Cartwright) were supposed to have a conversation. I was worried that we would not sound like we were coming from the same world. But when I heard it and I heard my voice in comparison and I heard the banter between us, I was pleasantly surprised because it was all sounding very tied in and very strong together.
Even though it is not a flesh-and-blood character, are there any personality traits that you share with Lisa Cartwright?
We are both obsessed with getting the job done. We are both extremely meticulous and particular about making sure that if there is a task at hand, it has to be completed. She is somebody who is always thinking about doing the right thing. There are moments in my life where I think that this is the right thing to do but then I may also want to do something that may not be ethically correct sometimes. That constant fight within yourself is something Lisa deals with as well.
Will this stint benefit you as an actor? You have already surprised everyone with what a natural you are in front of the camera...
I don't think anything ever goes to waste. Whether you come on to screen for five minutes in a large ensemble and it is well received in a theatre or you are doing a little part in an OTT thing, you will always find that somebody somewhere is watching something that you have done.
I got Masaba Masaba because of an Instagram post. I got Modern Love: Mumbai because Dhruv Sehgal, who was the director, happened to see my interview on YouTube and noticed that people like me and he needed somebody who is a likeable character. He hadn't even seen Masaba Masaba and I did not get any (acting) work after Modern Love, but I got this audio thing.
I don't know what it is, I don't know how these things come together, but nothing goes to waste... I believe that. With this project, I have learnt a lot more, especially about using my breath to my benefit when it comes to a scene.
Also, imagine I gave 80 per cent to a scene which I couldn't enact because I couldn't get into the skin of the character. But when I am on set next time and I wear the hair and the make-up and the clothes and I have the props around me and that universe around me, maybe I will be able to give it a hundred per cent.
What did you discover about your voice on this stint?
I discovered that my voice sounds very different from what I imagined it has been sounding all this while! I sound a lot like my mother (Neena Gupta) when I speak Hindi. I had to do a double take sometimes and I felt it was my mother who was speaking to me! I also realised that I like speaking in Hindi a lot more and I should probably do it a lot more.
What is your approach towards your acting career now?
I approach people because I believe that if you want work you have to go out and ask for it sometimes, especially in today's times. But I am being cautious about it because there are some things I just can't do. Like I can't just go away for 100 days and shoot. I am balancing who I reach out to and in what capacity, because I don't want to reach out to somebody big who I know will need more and more of my time, which I cannot give them.
Apart from that, I am manifesting heavily because there is a lot on my mind. I think I would suit the West a little bit more and so I am trying to manifest some work there.