JOIN USPreviously known as Suhana, the Sasural Genda Phool-girl who was pampered silly by her in-laws on national television, Ragini Khanna is shaking off that cutesy, bubbly girl-image with her current powerhouse performance in the Shanker Raman-film Gurgaon.
“Shanker Raman is the best thing that could have happened to me,” says actor Ragini Khanna. “I am not just talking about him as a technician, director, or a teacher, but also as a great human being. Only after I met him, did I see all of his work. The first thing he told me when he met me was about the wheel of integrity. Now, I thoroughly believe in energy that inspires,” she adds.
Dedicated performance
Ragini’s performance in the noir film Gurgaon has been praised. She plays Preet Khanna in this factual family drama that’s set in the real estate hub of Gurgaon. To her credit, the actor had put in months of research into her role of a Haryanvi girl who has just returned to her hometown after studying architecture in Paris.
“I tried to sketch out her entire journey. She is not a true-blue Haryanvi, so her accent had to be a little in-between, authentic yet polished. She knows the power she wields with her dad, so she chooses her words very carefully. But the high point of her personality is that she doesn’t suffer from a sense of entitlement,” says Ragini, completely in sync with Preet, her onscreen character.
“I know her inside out because my director pushed me in the right direction with her. She is not very expressive and not very communicative, and she is flawed, just like every other character from our movie,” she states.
The last three years since she left television have not been easy, but she has no complaints. She had experienced a burnout and didn’t want to continue. She lost out on health and was put off by repetitive topics too. “There was a time I had two or three similar TV scripts that wanted me to have juice and cornflakes in a nightgown in my bed just like Suhana used to because the concept had become so popular!” she reveals with complete amusement. “I can laugh it off as a joke now but then it was frightening. It made me feel I’d be doing this routine for the rest of my life.”
In films, Ragini has discovered a new dimension to herself. “See, I am trying to give myself a chance. I want to make some choices as an actor and not just get pushed into making decisions. I consciously decided to move out of television even though I was being ‘wooed’ by central roles because I realised that we were going down the humdrum street. Even then, I am very proud of my choices in television. I stopped when I realised people were looking for set formulae in acting, in storylines, and in sets too!” she explains.
Always a hard-worker
In the ensuing gap between working for television and moving to the big screen, the actor says she has relied only on one thing to see her through – hard work. “That’s the only thing I can control. Other than that, maybe I can control the medium I work for; television is a writer’s medium and movies are a director’s medium. But theatre is an actor’s medium! As of now, I realise that the joy I derive from performing in films is far more than anything else. So, here I am!” she smiles.
Up next is another hard-hitting film where Ragini shares space with a stellar cast, including Divya Dutta and the late Om Puri. Titled Gul Makai, it is a film directed by Amjad Khan and produced by Anand Kumar, and is reportedly based on the Pakistani activist and 2014’s Nobel Peace Prize-winner Malala Yousafzai’s life.
At the moment, the actor is taking one thing at a time. Far from the maddening applause, she is used to as her onscreen avatar Suhana (still fresh in people’s minds), Ragini is building a new story for herself. “I completely credit television for my acceptance among people. I am sure something else would have worked out if it hadn’t been for television, but I still can’t imagine what,” she laughs. There is also a little secret that she holds. Did you know that this girl is popular 90s actor Govinda’s niece? If you didn’t, it’s because she doesn’t like to tom-tom about her connection with her uncle. “I love him, but he’s his own person. What I like the most about him is that he is a self-made man, no godfather, no connections. I wouldn’t want to ride on his success. The maximum I could do is emulate him and become a self-made person too,” she says determinedly.