Sreejita De: I was briefed about role on day two of shoot

The pandemic hit the pause button on Sreejita De BlohmPapersquos daily soap offerings but she is now back on screen with Shaitani Rasmein The actor who tied the knot last year with German boyfriend Michael BlohmPape plays Chhaya daayan in the fantasy show In conversation with midday De talks about playing a vicious witch and how the rolersquos negativity affects her mentallyEdited excerpts from the interviewWhy didnrsquot you take up any daily soap after Bigg Boss 16Budgets had been slashed drastically after COVID After Nazar her last daily soap I didnrsquot do any daily soap but took up a few web series However I didnrsquot find the kind of shows I was looking forConsidering Shaitani Rasmein is a fantasy show what are the crazy things yoursquore doing in itMy character is a psychopath This is the most vicious and hated character I have ever played She is extremely cruel without any remorse In Nazar Monalisa was a daayan but she wasnrsquot vicious Such a character has not been showcased on TV She is completely drenched in blood and has crazy tendenciesDid you get time to prep for the roleNot at all My characterrsquos look is heavy I have to wear a wig that goes up to my knees adorn heavy jewellery It tires you I was finalised and two days later I had to shoot I was briefed about the character for the first time on set on the second day of the shoot laughs We didnrsquot get any time to prep but I had an idea of the genre They wanted me to be unrestrained and bonkers She could laugh and the next moment kill someoneDo you feel villainous characters often become caricatures on Indian televisionI agree because there is a thin line between desired look and the final execution Sometimes it becomes comical even though you want to create fear It could be written anyway but it also depends on how an actor is playing the role I ensure to not do anything to make her seem comical The director leads you in the right wayDo you feel this show will propel your career aheadI liked the character when it was offered to me She is bold she knows she is a seductress I wanted to raise the bar in terms of negative characters Plus the show came to me when I was missing facing the camera Chhaya seemed like a dumdaar powerful roleAre you shooting a lot with against chroma backgroundMost of my scenes have chroma because Chhaya is either flying or doing something crazy The journey between action and cut sometimes gets to me Her evil demeanour and actions affect my personal energy I am usually not an angry person but after playing the character for the last 20 days itrsquos affecting my mood The negative energy exhausts me I wasnrsquot sleeping or eating properly we have to travel every day for twoandahalf hours to the Mira Road set and then shoot constantly for 12 hoursmdashit can get exhausting When playing negative characters you have to allow time for the character to leave your systemHow has your husband reacted to your roleHe watches Shaitani Rasmein every day on Disney Hotstar Though he doesnrsquot understand half the things he still grasps the premise He has been living here for the last six odd years so itrsquos easier to grasp things now I try to watch some of his German shows with subtitles