‘Thappad’ Actress Geetika Vidya Ohlyan Opens Up On Prepping For Her Role In Hotstar's ‘School Of Lies’

Actress Geetika Vidya Ohlyan, who is best known for her powerful performances in Netlfix's ‘Soni’, Anubhav Sinha's ‘Thappad’, ‘Unpaused’ among others, is all set to feature in the mystery thriller titled 'School Of Lies', which will stream on Disney Plus Hotstar from June 2 onwards. 

Geetika, who once again looks convincing in her character, got candid about her experience portraying Trisha in the show.

She shared, "Becoming a single mother to Shakti at an early age of 19, Trisha chooses to take responsibility for her choices and tries to manage life between work and raising her child all by herself. Coming from a middle-class family, she likes to be in control of her choices and life, takes the very first opportunity to move cities, take charge and excels in her work space. Her life and sense of self gets shaken when Shakti goes missing from his boarding school. She is distressed and on a quest to find her son facing judgements from others and her own guilt ridden self."

Sharing about what prompted her to take up the role, she said, "Trisha is very different from Soni, Sunita (Thappad) and Seema (Unpaused :Vishaanu), the characters that I have seen portraying so far on screen. Trisha’s language , socio economic class and personality type shall be a refreshing change for the audience who have seen my previous works. When it comes to telling a story involving layered issues like the inner world of young adults, how one directs the narrative becomes pivotal, Avinash Arun's and Ishani Bannerjee’s body of work exemplifies this. They have remarkably dealt with sensitive portrayals in a path-breaking way through Qilla, Three of us and Aligarh respectively amongst others. To be working alongside Jitendra Joshi , Nitin Goel , Nimrat Kaur , Hemant Kher and Sonali Kulkarni was quite appealing as well. Gratitude to Sunny Dagar for such casting. All these reasons caused me to take up of the role of Trisha."

Talking about the challenges of portraying Trisha, she informed, "I am 31, bachelorette and the youngest in my family. Have not even been a pet parent in this lifetime. To be given the responsibility of portraying Trisha did come with its set of justifiable challenges but that’s where being an actor has its charm. We get to allow ourselves to experience being beyond what our lived experiences of this material life make us. Trisha faces acute anxiety issues which will be seen throughout the show, that breathing pattern was a challenge. I'm glad I found myself under the safe watchful eyes of Avinash and Ishani during the shoot and in the lap of mother nature and comforting phone calls with my family at the end of each day."

Speaking about the USP of the show, Geetika mentioned, "Its uniqueness lies in the psychological complexities of its characters and the empathetic gaze of the director and creators. This show addresses the portrayal of the forces within all of us that in the director’s words ‘may liberate or destroy us’. School of Lies is an all boys school, in our country the ratio of suicide committed by male and female begins to grow wider beyond teenage years (NCRB reports )and between 18-30 its 2:1 and keeps increasing! For me the USP of this show is that the story allows one to understand the dark loneliness of the child within the adults who are suffering themselves and therefore unleashing pain on others."

Created by Ishani Banerjee and Avinash Arun Dhaware, and directed by Avinash Arun Dhaware, the show also stars Nimrat Kaur, Aamir Bashir, Sonali Kulkarni and Jitendra Joshi in prominent roles.