After becoming a household name with her role as Kinjal in the hit TV show Anupamaa, actress Nidhi Shah is now stepping into the OTT world with Sapne Vs Everyone. In an exclusive chat with mid-day, the actress opened up about unlearning television acting techniques, understanding her emotionally layered character Vedha, and working closely with director Ambrish Verma to shape her performance.
Talking about the transition from television to OTT, Nidhi admitted that it took her time to adapt to the new style of acting. “I was playing a very famous character named Kinjal. And in that, I was portraying this character who is a housewife. Someone who`s ambitious too. And also someone who is a married woman with kids and all. The transition took some time for me in terms of performance,” she shared.
Nidhi Shah on change in performances from TV to OTT
Explaining the difference between TV and OTT performances, the actress said, “Because acting on TV is different from OTT. TV is paced differently. It requires a lot more, expression-wise. Like loud expressions. You’re talking fast with no pauses and stuff like that. Pacing is really important. I can just sum it up in that one word.”
Speaking about her character Vedha from Sapne Vs Everyone, Nidhi described her as a grounded young woman trying to survive in Mumbai with big dreams and limited means. “Vedha, she’s more low-key. She’s a simple girl, a stylist, who’s left her whole family and everything to come to Bombay. She’s been wanting to come for years, and everything’s new to her. It’s scary,” she explained.
The actress also revealed how difficult it was for her to tone down her naturally expressive television style. “Creating something that comes from a kind of emotionless character took me a while because even my director was like, ‘Hey, keep it subtle, you know? Don’t be so expressive.’ I`m like, ‘Oh my God, I have to take that stuff out of me.’”
Nidhi further admitted that years of television acting had conditioned her performance style. “You get too caught up in that kind of performance where you gotta be more expressive, loud, like shouting and crying all the time. But with OTTs and Films, it`s different, you need to slow down, you need to understand the opposite character, you need to create space for other people too in that particular scene.”
On her most emotionally demanding scene
One of the most emotionally demanding scenes for her was Vedha confessing her feelings to Prashant while simultaneously accepting her harsh reality. Recalling the sequence, she said, “It happens in the room. Basically, he asked me, ‘Two days ago, you said you’re in love with me, you`ll take care of me and everything, and what about that? Now that you`re getting married, I mean, I don’t get what you’re trying to say.’”
Nidhi admitted she found it difficult to emotionally connect with Vedha’s struggles because she herself comes from a privileged background. “I’ve never played a role like that in my life. I’ve always been a rich girl. Like, my family background is really a rich family. I come from a very wealthy family and generally, by the grace of God and my parents, I’ve never gone through anything like that.”
She further elaborated on Vedha’s emotional conflict. “You have ambitions in your life. You want to make money. You want to be really stylish. You want to stay in this industry. But you can’t because of your family baggage because your father isn’t well. You have to give up your dreams and marry someone.”
The actress also spoke about the emotional complexity of the scene, where Vedha suppresses her pain instead of openly breaking down. “You don’t have to cry, but you do have to be emotional. You don’t have to say something obvious right in front of him, but then you want to make him feel it and think, ‘Oh my god, she’s really going through something.’ So yeah, it was kind of tough for me.”
Crediting Ambrish Verma for helping her understand the emotional layers of the character, Nidhi shared, “Even Ambrish sir, who’s the director of my show, was like, ‘Nidhi, you know what she’s saying, but it actually means something else.’”
Talking about the preparation process, she revealed that the team spent weeks rehearsing and doing script readings. “I think a couple of weeks, like we had readings, we did a lot of auditions, and he just made me understand that just feel it. Just feel the character.”
Praising her director further, she concluded, “Ambrish sir is so good that whatever he explains, you just get it. He makes you do the readings.”
