Navratri special | Kavita Kaushik on enacting various forms of Maa Durga: My spirituality has made me calmer

Actor Kavita Kaushik recently turned director with a dance production titled Energy and Emotions of Devi.

The project, uploaded to social media, has received a lot of love from fans and Kaushik could not be happier. “This is surely divine; everything is because of the divinity and power of Maa Durga. My phone has not stopped ringing since I posted it. I have never got such a response before,” says the actor.

She goes on to explain, “Maa ke roop ke jo bhaav hain aur varnan hain, I wanted to use those for my directorial debut. I shot it in Rishikesh and the Kimadi forests near Dehradun with a local lad [video creator and kathak dancer] Vaibhav Tiwari. I enacted the various energies of the goddess and he enacted the emotions of Shakti.”

She adds that she has further tapped into her spiritual side over past year. “Last year, we began doing Durga Puja at home and I made a small pratima of Maa. In this phase of life, I am enjoying all this a lot, and my husband (businessman Ronnit Biswas) has been very supportive and participative in my spiritual endeavors. It has made me as a calmer person,” she tells us.

Interestingly, while Kaushik and Tiwari choreographed the production, the actor admits that she isn’t a trained dancer. “I have trained in nothing, but I have performed kathak, yoga mudras and asanas,” the 43-year-old shares.

She adds, “Myself and Vaibhav choreographed it and I also did my make-up, hair and the dresses I wore my own clothes while the cinematography was also by local boys and my husband produced the project using all his event management skills during the shoot. We shot it on day 1 and 2 or Navratri, did post-production at my Doon house and posted it on Day 3.”

Her love for traditional dance forms and her devotion to the goddess, Kaushik actor tells us, stems from her culture and upbringing. “People think I am Haryanvi, but my father is from Rajasthan and my mother is from Kolkata. So, I have very beautiful memories of performing at Durga Pujas as a child,” she ends.