Manjari on exploring and studying dissociative disorder for her character in The Freelancer
Manjari Fadnnis
The process of prepping for a character is different for every actor. While some engage in workshops, a few prefer gaining insight from conversations. Manjari Fadnnis, who is set to appear in Disney+ Hotstar’s The Freelancer, has the habit of writing the biographies of her characters. “It’s just for myself. [I write details] from the time my character was born, including her sun sign, family background, dreams as a child, her inner world, and little moments in her growing-up years that would become emotional triggers in the present,” she says, adding that she uses those moments as flashbacks in her mind to emotionally prompt the performance.
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Mohit Raina and Manjari Fadnnis in The Freelancer
The extraction series, directed by Bhav Dhulia with Neeraj Pandey as creator-showrunner, is based on the book, A Ticket to Syria by Shirish Thorat. The Freelancer revolves around Mohit Raina’s character, who is on an extraction mission for a young girl held captive in a war-torn, hostile environment in Syria. “However hard a human is, he needs someone in his life with whom he can let his guard down. That’s where Mrunal [her character] comes in. She is Avinash Kamat’s emotional anchor and his only family. However, Mrunal is coping with a past tragedy, [which makes her] mentally unstable, emotionally volatile, easily triggered, and vulnerable. She is on the road to recovery at a behavioural institute. [Despite] the turmoil, the love they share is strong and deep,” says Fadnnis. The actor says that to understand dissociative disorder and perform it authentically, she had a sit-down with a counsellor, who gave her more insight. “I spoke to an accomplished psychological counsellor and friend, Kanan Khatau. I also did a little study on what a person deals with emotionally and mentally in this condition. And then, of course, I used my imagination. Besides that, the scenes were well-written [and researched], which has been a boon.”
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