Seeing her for the first time, one will not say she is one of those stereotypical slim and zero-size actress, which is the custom in the film industry. In fact, Aiswarya Behera Badapanda has no problem with the tag of khaate peete ghar ki ladki and being healthy. She believes in making her mark through her roles and acting.
Arindam Ganguly, OP
BHUBANESWAR: Making a mark in the film industry is not an easy task, and that too on one’s own terms and conditions. Meet the 22-year-old Aiswarya Behera Badapanda, a multi-talented Oriya actress, anchor, singer and dancer who is making her mark in the industry and outside of it through her hard work and endowed with talent.
Popularly known as Ash-B, Aiswarya had done a variety of roles in TV, movies and web series. She was also well-known for her sketch comedy role of Miss Guguli in a private Oriya channel. Till now, she has done four Oriya movies —Jogi, To Premare Parile Pare, Kalighat and another movie that is yet to titled. Apart from that, she had done numerous Oriya serials since 2012. She is also a trained Odissi dancer and did her Diploma in acting and Anchoring from Sanjay Patnaik’s The Platform academy.
She used to perform dance forms such as Sambalpuri, Odissi and belly dance during her college days and had won awards. But when the acting bug struck her, she got focused on acting and since then acting remains as her first and last choice.
She had also done one Indo-Russian movie titled Elixir of Immortality, which is her first film directed by Russian filmmaker Stanislav Aistov where she played the role of dancer Maya who, in her journey as a dancer, found the true philosophy of life. In the movie she acted with the India Got Talent fame dance group, the Prince dance group of Berhampur. The film was released in select screens this year and was shown in international festivals like Sundance film festival.
Seeing her for the first time, one will not say she is one of those stereotypical slim and zero-size actress, which is the custom in the film industry. Aiswarya says she has no problem with her body size, because she is comfortable with that. “Unfortunately, every movie industry has this mentality and obsession with the perfect girl, which meant one has to be fair and slim and sexy. This is a wrong way of portraying women. All girls are not the same but each girl is beautiful in her own way,” she said.
“Those who think modeling, singing, acting or any other of the glamour-related industry is only for slim girls are totally wrong. In recent times, actresses like Vidya Balan, Parineti Chopra and Bhumi Padnekar sent strong messages and raised their voice against body shaming,” Aiswarya noted.
She is largely inspired by Ashley Graham, a plus-size American model who broke all the stereotypes in the modeling industry, says Aiswarya and adds she is taking the similar route. She says films are a way of showing a positive message and inspiring people. “By creating great roles for women, we can inspire them.”
The industry, she says, is patriarchal in nature. “Those in it prefer the hero-oriented lead roles more than women-oriented leads.” She also makes sure that the roles she played are not the same kind of romantic love stories. “Objectifying and presenting a stereotypical girl in the movies is not good.”
Aiswarya also says she loves challenges and seeks to do a variety of roles. In her career that started in 2012, she had done roles many roles including comic ones. She played a negative role in her film Jogi while in the Hindi web series, she played the role of a girl obsessed with selfie.
In her comedy roles, Aiswarya says she tried to bring something unique. “Acting in a comedy film is a very tough task.”. She will not be stuck to this genre always. For, she knows that in the industry, audience will at the outset put one in a category like TV actor, film actor, Jatra actor etc. “As an actor, one can play any role in any medium. In many countries, actors perform in both films and TV. Actors such as Jennifer Aniston and Bradley Cooper had started their career in TV and later switched over to movies.”
Aiswarya’s father Abanindra Behera, a retired state government employee, and mother Mamata Behera encouraged her in achieving her goals. At present, she is doing her M.Phil in English from Utkal University. She is also writing poems and aiming to write her own book of poems on a variety of themes. “At present, my main focus is on making a mark in the Oriya film industry and I aspire to be best of the best.”
Any plan to shift to Bollywood? She says Mumbai is not in her scheme of things right now. She wants to create a mark in her home state first and foremost. Notably, in her family, she has a sister, Amayeeka Behera, who also had acted in a few movies with her.
