Maanvi Gagroo’s portrayal of Siddhi Patel in Amazon Prime Originals’ Four More Shots Please has been received well by the audience. While her character is fighting her own complexities, she is also the younger and the most vulnerable one of the four leading ladies.Maanvi spoke on how Siddhi is very different from her, working with an all-woman team and how Indian audience is slowly accepting women-lead content.
Q. Four More Shots Please is your most glamorous show to date. How much fun did you have?
I enjoy fashion. This is the first show that let me be a certain way. There is so much focus on clothes, hair and make-up. Everybody’s been saying that it is so lovely to see me in this new avatar.
Q. But did you relate with Siddhi Patel?
In terms of my relatability to the character, physically, I am not under confident and I love making new friends. Siddhi is a little conscious because that has been drilled into her as a child. She is not good enough for her mother and she has constantly craved that validation from people. That is something I didn’t relate to, but at the same time, I related to that feeling of being judged. Everybody at some point of their life has had the feeling of being judged.
Q. How was your off-camera bonding with co-actors Kirti Kulhari, Bani J and Sayani Gupta?
All four of us knew that we need to have a good, healthy relationship outside the set for it to reflect on screen. Baani and I instantly connected somehow, from day one of the workshop. She is very protective of me and I love her. With Kirti, I didn’t like her initially but when we started shooting I became very fond of her. Even she told me that she thought I was weird and rude. Now we laugh about it.
Q. How was it being in an all-woman team of Four More Shots Please?
Not only is the cast female, the crew is also female – our director, both our showrunners, the producer, our writer, dialogue writer, DOP, editor, there were so many of us. It’s obviously a different experience. I was worried that everybody would be yelling and our hormonal cycles will be clashing (laughs), but nothing like that happened. We had a ball and became very comfortable very early in the production.I feel very good when I meet hard-working, intelligent women and get to work with them, I feel like this is our tribe.
