Waluscha De Sousa on Portraying a Nuanced Villain in ‘Crackdown’ and a simple Kashmiri Muslim woman in ‘Tanaav’
Delhi : The actress opens up about the complexities of playing different roles and bringing depth to each character she portrays.
When Apoorva Lakhia offered Waluscha De Sousa the role of Garima Kalra, an ISI agent, in the espionage thriller web series "Crackdown," she was excited but nervous to take on such an unexpected part. Waluscha says, "I feel grateful to Apoorva for having offered me the role of Garima Kalra. He was clear that it is a negative character, an ISI agent and people aren't going to expect this from me. The character involves physical combat and is fiery. I put my trust in him because before this, I hadn't been offered anything out of the box."
Waluscha De Sousa Born On 28/11/1981 In Goa journey to silver screen is interesting. She says that she was initially anxious about reprising her role as the ruthless Garima in Season 2, given the high expectations after the success of Season 1. But she relied on her emotional memory as an actor to connect and fully inhabit the villainous character. As she described her process, "I'm a director's actor and a keen observer. Besides that actors need to tap into emotions of the past or present, sadness, disappointment and being let down."
She gave the example of a particular scene depicting the dissolution of Garima's marriage, saying, "Personally, I've gone through heartbreak more than once and I can tell you its the most disappointing time in your life, its soul crushing." While she had fully embodied the bold and fearless Garima by Season 2, she recalled a funny behind-the-scenes moment when her self-defence instincts kicked in unexpectedly.
"Throughout season one Garima is the one throwing punches but in season two I had a scene with Saqib Saleem where I was supposed to take a punch or two. The cameras were rolling and I had got into the thick skin of Garima, so when Saqib threw the punch I started defending myself which wasn't part of the script. Everyone had to stop shooting and convince me to take a punch this time," informs the actress.
Waluscha even underwent a drastic transformation to play a Kashmiri woman in the socio-political web series 'Tanaav'. She revealed that she played the role of a simple Kashmiri Muslim woman named Zoya in the series, which is very different from anything she has done in the past. Most people perceived her as someone who doesn't speak Hindi and is NRI, whereas she was born and brought up in Goa.
When she was offered the role, she felt that it gave her the opportunity to showcase her acting prowess beyond the typically glamorous roles she has been known for until now. However, to truly inhabit the role, she had to work extensively on getting the accent and speaking style just right. She diligently worked on fine-tuning her Hindi diction and dialogue delivery to sound authentic as a Kashmiri village woman rather than the urban Mumbai persona people expected from her.
Overall, Waluscha expressed gratitude for the opportunity to showcase her range as an actor through complex characters, and is looking forward to work in interesting projects in the future.
