Radhika Madan says shifting to films at the peak of her TV career was not a difficult decision for her as she wanted to rediscover herself as an actor.

Radhika became an overnight star after featuring in Ekta Kapoor’s Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi. 

Post the show, the actor signed Vasal Bala’s film Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota and will be now seen in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Pataakha, which is releasing first.

“My priority was never money. After giving a hit show, you’ll get huge amount of money for your second show. If I wanted to earn, I would have stayed in it for a year more. But I believe in creative satisfaction more than money,” Radhika said.

“After the show got over, I really wanted to take a break because I was doing it for more than a year. I was getting a lot of offers even before my show got over and I was offered good money. But I needed to take a break and rediscover myself as an actor.”

While she was a star on TV, in Pataakha she will be seen as a newcomer but the dichotomy never mattered to the 23-year-old actor.

“I never took my stardom on TV seriously. I believe fame is temporary but the journey stays with you. I never felt I am a newcomer while working with Vishal sir. My approach was to play with the character and see what happens.”

Pataakha is based on Charan Singh Pathik’s short story Do Behnein and features Radhika and Sanya Malhotra as two warring sisters.

The actor got a call for the final audition for the film while she was celebrating the end of Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota shoot.

Once on board, Radhika underwent several workshops with Bhardwaj and Charan Singh to get the dialect. They then went to the village and did the daily chores cook food on a chulha, make cow dung cakes for about a week.

“When we first heard the locals, the dialect was difficult to understand. It went over our heads. It took us two-three days to become familiar. We used to sing songs and dance like them every night post dinner. We went through that process so that it looks organic.”

They finished the film in 28 days and the team is now looking forward to its release on September 28.

“It feels surreal to be a part of a Vishal Bhardwaj film. It’s so dreamy, it is yet to sink in. When I saw myself on the big screen in the trailer and the songs, the realisation that ‘oh I’m there’ dawned upon. But otherwise, I still can’t believe,” Radhika says.

Going ahead, the actor says she’s clear she doesn’t want to fall in the trap of doing films where she is used just as a prop.

“I was that kind of a person who used to dream I’ll make an entry on the big screen in slow-motion with my hair flying. With time, it became very superficial. I would rather do a film like Pataakha where I’m five shades darker, have no make up and with hair bleached than a film where I am just a showpiece, standing there for looks,” she says.