Kirti Kulhari on Netflix’s Bard of Blood, Roles for Female Actors

On the sets of Netflix’s latest show Bard of Blood, The Quint caught up with actor Kirti Kulhari who plays an important part in the series. She spoke about working in the web space, roles for female actors and her acting process.

I want to start by asking you - you are playing a leader who is working with underprivileged kids and is also a painter and is interested in art. I just want to know, how do you prepare for a role? Are you someone who relies on spontaneity or are you someone who likes to do rehearsals?

So, my process is usually like…I’m going to copy a Hollywood actor who said his preparation starts from before the point where the script begins. So, everything that has happened before in the life of the character, whatever you see on screen - everything that has happened before is what I really focus on. Which is the background, maybe the upbringing and the parents, siblings, the various relationships, so that’s what I do when I’m doing a workshop before I begin the shoot. This is what I focus on mostly and, of course, there is a lot of stuff that is in the text. They say that in a well-written film or a show, you find all your answers in the text. Which again I feel is very true.

But Kirti you’ve spoken candidly about how there are not enough good roles in films. Do you find that in this space - this is a Netflix series,  there are series on the web space as well - do you feel like the horizons have widened and there’s just more opportunity now or is it still hard to find something relevant?

I’m saying it’s getting easier, it’s not that hard or rare to find roles that really speak to you and that really do justice to so much that is actually out there in the world.

We are kind of limited by, I would say, the idea of what kind of a woman is acceptable to the audiences. There is always consciously or subconsciously an audience that you are trying to appeal to. And whenever you do that, people get very uncomfortable with anything out of the ordinary.

Watch the video for the full interview!

Video Editor: Ashish MacCune