Modelling doesn't help with acting at all. But it makes you confident: Kriti Sa...

Kriti Sanon was a model before foraying into the film industry. While there is a common notion that ‘models can’t act’, it’s also said that it helps models face the camera better, as they’re less camera-conscious. “It depends,” says Kriti.

“If you’ve done TV commercials (TVCs), you find them similar to the feature films that you do. It is moving camera, you’re still expressing. As for ramp and photo shoots, it doesn’t help in acting at all. You can be as straight faced on ramp and have no expressions on your face, and it is okay. As for TVCs, your screen presence matters,” says the actor.

However, she feels that being a model only helps in the initial days as one is comfortable with the camera. And that acting is more to do with your thinking process. “It [acting] is about building a character and how you approach a scene, which modelling doesn’t help with at all. However, it does make you confident. And if you are confident, you perform better. Like they say, it helps you open up as an actor and shed your inhibitions,” says Kriti.

In the process of approaching her craft, does she follow any technique or method? “For me, it is about being spontaneous. It wasn’t like bachpan se socha tha ki acting karni hai (It’s not like I wanted to act since childhood). It’s not like I have attended acting classes and schools. So, for me, it has been about finding my own process. I think every actor learns on the job. I still don’t know what works for me or what doesn’t. However, for me, it is more of spontaneity than method acting,” says Kriti.

Citing an example of how she approaches a scene, the Heropanti (2014) actor says, “There are a lot of people who go back to an emotional memory that they have experienced in the past and connect it to a scene. I can’t do that. If I have lost someone or if I am heartbroken at some point in my life or something has disturbed me [in the past], and if I have to do a scene like that, I can’t go back to that [time] and get [the memory of] it.”

For her, it’s more about “the current situation — being in the character’s place and how she would feel about the situation”. “It is about the things that affect her, and what is her backstory. So if I am doing an intense scene, I switch two to three minutes before that and just go back to the sequence and what my character is going through at that moment,” says Kriti.

The actor will next be seen in Raabta, and Bareilly Ki Barfi.