I don’t really care about screen time, you can make an impact in one five-second scene too: Sanya Malhotra

With two films set to release shortly and one currently being shot, actor Sanya Malhotra has her hands full and scheduled packed. Having made her debut in the Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal (2016), it almost took Sanya more than a year to sign more films. But, she isn’t complaining. In fact, the actor likes the way things have worked out.

“I’m loving the hippie life where we work on a film for a few months, meet new people, make friends, learn and then we pack are bags and go somewhere else to repeat the same. It’s great to absorb everything and everyone’s different approach,” says Sanya, who has three films in the pipeline —Badhaai Ho with Ayushmann Khurana, Photograph with Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vishal Bhardwaj’s Pataakha.

On signing the three films, which belong to very different genres, Sanya states, “I’m pretty instinctive about choosing a script. If I like the story while I’m hearing it, and as a performer, if my inner voice says, ‘let’s do it, it will be fun’, I just go for it. I do not know much theory to analyse.”

Asked if she worries that having established co-stars might affect her screen time, Sanya says she learned her lessons well in time. “Screen time is something I don’t really care about. And I’m glad I’ve learned that from my first film itself. I do a film keeping in mind how my character can play an integral part in the storytelling aspect of the film.”

And does the length of her character plays an important role? “You don’t need a lot of screen time to make an impression on an audience. You can make an impact in one five-second scene too. It’s how you comprehend a script and perform to do at most justice to it. A film can never be a one man show in my opinion; each film hosts a variety of characters that collectively make the film what it is,” adds Sanya.

Interact with Monika Rawal Kukreja at Twitter/@monikarawal