‘Typecaste’ exposes society’s deep-seated biases: Aaditi Pohankar

The OTT star who features in Zee Theatre’s ‘Typecaste’, feels the issues the Tendulkar teleplay raises will connect with Telugu and Kannada audiences. Acclaimed OTT star Aaditi Pohankar known for her work in shows like ‘She’ and ‘Aashram’ as well as a Marathi superhit ‘Lal Bhaari’ has recently wrapped up a South-Indian film and wants to work with iconic names like Mani Ratnam, Vetrimaaran and Gautham Vasudev Menon. She stars in Zee Theatre’s ‘Typecaste’, a Hindi adaptation of Vijay Tendulkar’s Marathi play ‘Pahije Jatiche’ and feels ecstatic that it will now be aired also in Kannada and Telugu.

She says, “Vijay Tendulkar wrote plays about the realities we tend to look away from but he presented them as compelling art. Like him, many storytellers in the South also focus on impactful themes, powerful stories, and sharply-etched characters. I feel the Telugu and Kannada audience will respond positively to the issue that the teleplay raises.” ‘Typecaste’ explores the discrimination suffered by Mahipat Babruvahan, a Dalit academician and Aaditi says she is drawn to subjects that shed light on such critical social issues.

Her role in ‘Aashram’ is also that of a Dalit girl though in ‘Typecaste, she plays a high-caste woman caught between love and the prejudices of her family. Explaining why it was so important for her to work on the project, Pohankar says, “I wanted to be a part of this teleplay because it addresses caste discrimination, which regrettably, persists even today. It’s disheartening to see that a part of society often turns a blind eye to this problem. In big cities like Mumbai, there is not much awareness about it but it is very blatant in the interiors where violence against the marginalised is very common. I think it’s high time we understood that we are all a part of one human race. This is the message that ‘Typecaste’ conveys.”