Mrunal Thakur: On-screen characters in uniform have been typecast for far too long

In the reel world, characters in uniform are still stuck in a box, feels Mrunal Thakur. That’s what she wants to change with her next project, which has led her to a rigorous path of extensive training.

She will be playing the role of a female cop in Gumraah, and is going through extensive body training to get it right.

“The first thing I ensured was to avoid any stereotypes. For far too long characters in uniform in movies and on screen have been typecast a certain way. So this character is more adapted into reality. And that’s how we are trying to break the usual “idea” of a female cop,” Thakur tells us.

From getting physically trained to maintaining the body structure while running with trained athletes to handling different types of guns, she has tried everything to get the essence of a police officer. “My preparation for the role also involved talking to and spending time with some female cops of our force in order to understand their world through a better lens,” reveals the Super 30 actor.

She adds, “Having confidence in yourself is the absolute prime. I haven’t really taken any body training to be honest for the role, it’s more prep as a character, as opposed to gaining physical strength for the role.”

Opening up about her training, the 29-year-old says, “I’m mostly doing a lot of visual references. Watching a lot of content, videos to educate myself. Because being aware is the key for me”.

“More than challenging, it is the need to ensure we escape any tropes while playing such roles on screen, and to understand the psyche of a person in a position of power and uniform is very crucial according to me for this role especially,” she notes while wrapping up.