Pooja Gor: Was not ready physically for action

Television's ideal bahu Pooja Gor gears up for a turnaround of sorts with her ATS officer act in Surgical Operations Team

She struck gold as the strong-minded bahu in Mann Kee Awaaz Pratigya. Not one to believe in being repetitive with her acts, Pooja Gor followed up the drama with an eclectic mix of television and web shows. In her latest endeavour, SonyLIV's Surgical Operations Team, the actor gears up to play an ATS officer. In a chat with mid-day, she discusses her first brush with action and why the mini-series is an answer to international shows.

Edited excerpts from the interview.

From playing the bahu in Mann Kee Awaaz Pratigya to playing an ATS officer, your roles have evolved.

This project has been in the making for almost two years. I screen-tested for it when I was working on Kedarnath [2018]. I jumped at the opportunity because such offers are rare to come. I play the IT expert in the Anti-Terrorist Squad; I am the eyes and ears of the team. We are brought in to [investigate] national threats. The miniseries is along the lines of 24 and POW [Bandi Yuddh Ke, 2016] in terms of the production quality and execution.

While 24 and POW were prestige shows, they could not garner TRPs. Do you hope your show meets a different fate considering it is a digital offering?

As far as television is concerned, the current content has reached saturation point. There is an audience that wants to watch something different. OTT has definitely raised the bar, so television has to up its game. Frankly, I do not choose a project depending on its fate; I look at the story and script.

When you think of Indian cop shows, only CID comes to mind. But internationally, there are many good ones. Will Surgical Operations Team compete with them?

Considering the scale it is mounted on, the show is quite phenomenal. The pilot episode looks fabulous. There will be comparisons and they can't be avoided. But with this, I think we are in the big league.

Did you try your hand at action?

One of the biggest reasons I came on board was because of the kind of action I got to do. We were made to undergo gun training [before the shoot]. We had ex-Army personnel training us on the basics so that we didn't look like fools on screen.

How did you cope with your first action role?

I realised that I was not physically ready for such sequences. For instance, in a scene, a car with terrorists tries to run me over and I had to get out of the way. So, I had to jump aside. I found that tough to execute. Despite several rehearsals, I had to shoot the scene thrice. I sprained my neck while executing the jump. Likewise, when I shot my first gun sequence, my shoulder was hurting due to the recoil.

So, I feel I am not fit enough to avoid injury.

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