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'Khauf' and 'Sacred Games' actress Priyanka Setia: 'There's a fear of being a girl, I was driving alone at night recently and…'
Priyanka Setia is a powerhouse performer with over a decade of experience across theatre, film, and digital platforms. Trained under Pankaj Kapur, she has acted in 25+ stage productions and earned acclaim for her roles in hit series like Sacred Games, Rudra, Guilty Minds, Aranyak, and The Office.
Priyanka works extensively in the theatre industry and is best known for her roles in Poor Box Productions' The Vagina Monologues, Shikaar and Blank Page. On the big screen, she's known for her impactful performances in Begum Jaan, Khufiya, Hawaizaada, and Haseena Parker.
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Beyond performing, Priyanka also wears the creator's hat as the writer and creative brain behind Khalbali Records, an experimental and genre-defying show on JioCinema that dives into the world of music.
She was recently seen in the highly-acclaimed series Khauf and in an exclusive interview with Firstpost, spoke about her prep, the world of the show, and the significance of the moniker.
Edited excerpts from the interview
Khauf has received some fabulous reviews. What are the responses that you have been receiving so far about the show, the content, the performance, everything?
I think everybody is very, very happy. And I think everybody saw something, I'll not say binge worthy is the word, but something which is so layered and which is so dense, and it engages you. And I think it is so raw and real. Smita, Pankaj, and I think all the actors, we have tried to achieve this. We tried to do it, and I think we achieved it. People are just surprised. You know, even we were surprised. Amazon is surprised.
We were not expecting this kind of response from Khauf. But it did very well for us. So I'm very happy. I'm very happy that people like it, and I'm so happy to be very honest, that in this day and age where we say key attention span is less. Where we say people don't want to engage in meaningful content, where we say people just want to see this, funny one liner content. People here are willing to sit down and engage with something that is cerebral. So I think I'm very happy with this response.
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So how was the prep for this character?
So, when I auditioned for it, and since then, I think there's only one person who I've been drowning with my questions and that is Smita. The whole credit goes to Smita because it was written so well. And then everything I wanted to know about this character, where is her journey, whatever, I think I would. I just would pick up a call and call her and she would just help me with it. Other than that, for my personal prep, I do what majorly every actor does, getting more into the character, understanding her life choices, her world view, where she is coming from.
And I am the kind of actor who does back stories. I know it is looked down upon, and people are not very, you know, they like few actors, they think that why do we need a back story? I mean, to each its own. Right? It's your own individual process. So for me, I have this whole thing of going with the backstory. I met the guy who's playing my husband. I've done one theatre play with him, so I knew him from before. So we met a couple of times, and then we narrowed, we started digging into life. Why are we on such bad terms now?
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Well, I even wrote in Rima's diary. So I went into really great depths with the character because I feel it is good to be prepped and do your homework rather than and then let it be there. Your homework is there. And then when you go on stage or you go in front of the screen, a part of it will be there, showing itself in the character somewhere without revealing.
What does the title signify for you? It's not just a horror show for sure.
Khauf for me, of course, it is for the masses, it is like, to just attract the audience, to just have them enter the room, it is Khauf to tell them that, yes, it's a horror show. But, otherwise, majorly what Smita tried to do with it and what the show is about, the Khauf of being a woman and living and surviving on daily basis in cities like India, but majorly in cities like Delhi or places like that. Khauf is just this whole fear of being a girl. I'm in Goa right now.
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And last night, my friend called me to a place, and I was driving a car. Even in that car, I was driving alone, and I was reaching that place. And there was this stretch of road with no lights and empty, and you know how Goa can get at night. Every place is not lit properly. So the first thing that came to my mind, oh my god. If two boys come, what will I do? So constantly, as a woman living up with this Khauf and I've, been brought up in Delhi. I have had those unwanted glares and unwanted touches and unwanted comments.
You have been trained under the maverick, the maestro, maverick Pankaj Kapur. So how has that shaped you as an actor over the last few years, your journey as an actor? What are the learnings that have still stayed with you?
See, I did a fifteen day workshop with him and the very initial phase of my career. What stayed with me and I think I'm blessed because that was my entry to this world. I was a flight attendant before. So that was my just first entry and with him I think with Pankaj sir, what stayed with me is discipline. With Pankaj sir, what stayed with me is when you go on a set or when you do a character, it's not just going and doing the lines.
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Yes. It is a major part of it, remembering your lines and script and going and, you know, nibbling it. But when you are in your presence, there is always a being as a being, there is always something which is coming out of you. There is always something that you're saying. You're you are you're never neutral.
I think that stayed with me because of how the emotions enter the body and how the body operates from there. Mhmm. And the trust that you need to give to your body for that, you know, that came from Pankaj sir. I hope I made some sense.
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