Grey Characters More Attractive To Me: Radhika Apte

Actress Radhika Apte feels more comfortable in playing characters that are layered than one-dimensional parts, which are either too good or purely villainous.

The actress said she prefers real characters over larger- than-life roles. "I find playing morally-ambiguous characters easier than a woman who is always cute on screen.

"I find that very difficult because you can't relate to anything and you just have to be a puppet. I find myself suddenly becoming more flexible and more fitting into the thing when I am doing a grey role rather than all goody-goody or very bad characters, which are just one dimensional," Radhika told.

The 29-year-old actress said she really liked her role of in Badlapur.

"It was interesting when I was narrated the script of Badlapur because the character I play is an independent, educated woman but still wants to support her husband when she is not even sure whether he has done the murder or not.

"I found it to be a grey place, which can be explored. That really interested me," Radhika said.

The 'Shor in the City' actress said her flirtatious scene with actor Varun Dhawan in the film was a result of improvisation and she feels it made her character more exciting to watch.

"We added this one scene, where Varun and my character flirt in the car. That scene showed that this woman was mildly attracted to him and found him good looking. I felt this added one more layer to my role," she said.

In a contrast to Badlapur is Radhika's next, coming-of-age comedy Hunterrr, about a young guy's (Gulshan Devaiah) lustful journey.

Also starring Marathi star Sai Tamhankar in her full-fledged Bollywood debut, Hunterrr has Radhika playing Gulshan's love interest.

"My character Trupti is a simple Pune girl, who has a traditional perspective on love and relationships. When she comes to Mumbai for work and start living alone, her outlook towards things changes," she said.

Radhika feels the subtleties in the relationship between Trupti and Gulshan's Mandar Ponkshe add an exciting flavour to the movie.

"What's interesting about Trupti is like Mandar, she is also a middle-class woman. Mandar comes in her life and her perspective changes. There's this conflict between where you come from and what you believe now," she said.

Post Hunterrr, which hits theatres this Friday, Radhika has many projects lined up for release including Ketan Mehta's Manji- The Mountain Man, co-starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui,

Kaun Kitna Panai Mein with Kunal Kapoor and Ajay Devgn's Indo-US collaborative Parched.

"I am happy that I am having back-to-back releases after four years. More work is always welcome," she said.

PTI