Bollywood actress Avantika Dassani, who has reprised the role of Rhea Rajguru in Zee 5’s Mithya season 2, talks about her role and the reason why she took up the role in the first place. In an exclusive conversation with Money Control, Avantika opened up about her experience working on the show and her character’s evolution in the second season.

She said this season the show is much edgier and darker.

When asked about her preparation for the role of Rhea in Mithya 2, Avantika revealed, “Ria is emotionally driven, which I believe I am as well. That’s the thing that I resonate with with her.”

Working alongside seasoned actors like Huma Qureshi and Rajit Kapoor, Avantika said she had an incredible learning experience.

She praised Huma, saying, “She’s an absolute firecracker. She has incredible energy, and she’s so talented in what she does.” Avantika also appreciated the energy on set, stating, “The magic and the energy of being on a set is absolutely infectious.”

Avantika Dassani also talked about how it was growing up as Bhagyashree’s daughter, who became an icon with just one film, which was Maine Pyar Kiya. She said since her mother left the industry after the birth of her brother Abhimanyu, they had a very normal childhood away from the limelight.

She’s determined to carve her own path and make a name for herself. When asked about her mother’s influence, Avantika shared, “Mom has been away from the industry for a long time, so I didn’t have a filmy upbringing. I’m trying to bring out versatility so that the audiences and directors hopefully see me in a different light.”

With Mithya 2, Avantika has proven her acting chops, and her future projects are highly anticipated. She has a movie in the pipeline, which she’s excited about, and is eager to explore different roles and genres. As she concludes, “I want to be doing a lot of things, a lot of different things.”

Excerpts from the interview:

Rhea’s character is unusual.

Rhea’s character was an unusual choice to start something, but that’s exactly what excited me about it. I will surprise the audiences hopefully and surprise them in a good way. Mithya 2 is edgier. It’s darker. It’s pulpier. There’s just a lot more going on in this because in the 1st season, obviously, you’re setting up the characters. You’re setting up the base story. And now that, you know, the audiences are acquainted with the characters, you can just take it up a notch. And that’s exactly what we’ve done with season 2. So the gray shades you saw just get darker this time.

Rhea was misunderstand

That’s what I’m saying: season 1 was Just I see this as a joke, but if you think season 1 is buying the ticket, you get to watch the movie in season 2. That’s what I say. Because it’s definitely now Rhea in season 1 was a college-going girl who was very misunderstood and who basically never had any solid form of love and affection in her life. No one to really tell her or guide her properly. So it was just her reaching out to be accepted, to be loved by a family, which she never got. And no one to guide her and tell her, you know what? This is the right way, or this is the wrong way.

And those are the same people that ended up sending her to jail. So now in season 2, she is out of jail. She’s had this whole experience of betrayal, of fighting for love. And then, you know, obviously, someone who’s gone to jail at a young age, it hardens them. It makes them sort of stronger in a lot of ways. So there’s that internal strength that comes through plus externally, you know, now she’s the Chairman of the Rajguru estate and all of those things. So externally, also, she has a lot more power, a lot more influence, and she’s just here for revenge.

Equation with Huma

But, the interesting part is that, you know, there was a bit of a white and gray aspect in last season where you saw a hint of Juhi’s character also being sort of white, but you also see sort of the shades of gray. Now you see them a lot stronger because it’s the situation where both of the girls have sort of just gotten really down in the mud and are battling it out.
Rhea resonates with me.

So, I think there are 2 things that I resonate with her: that Ria is quite emotionally driven, which I believe I am as well. That is, a lot of her emotions guide who she is and how she behaves or reacts to things. Obviously, I’m not to the extent of the way that she does. But, in that sense, yeah, I am. I’m very emotional. I’m sensitive. I’m very passionate. So I think that’s the thing. And a sense of determination and focus that Ria has—I wish I had it as much as she does, but I do believe that I’m also. My parents keep joking about it that I’m a very Ziddi girl. So I agree with that aspect of her completely.
Parents reaction

I think they were all obviously excited because, before I shot for it, I didn’t tell them anything; only mom knew the whole story. My brother and my dad, I didn’t tell them everything because I wanted them to have fresh eyes towards it. And even with mom, obviously, is that she knew the story, but at the end of the day, seeing me perform in this manner, sort of it all coming together, they were really proud because, obviously, for anybody, right, that you play something like this for their first project, and, you know, take it on take on the challenge, especially when it’s someone close to you, obviously excited for them. You’re obviously looking forward, but you’re also worried because, you know, you were like, you know, something closer to you or something easier. They were happy because they also know that I’m the kind who would take on a big challenge like this. So they were just happy that it paid off. They were happy to see me, sort of handling all the way that I did.

My mom Bhagyashree left movies early.

Tell you very honestly that my parents, just after a certain age, could really keep us away from everything because they wanted us to have the most normal upbringing. And, obviously, they wanted us to find our own selves, our personalities, our, you know, what our ambitions and dreams are, and not be, you know, pigeons into one corner thinking, you know, none of that idea. Yeah. Because mom also left the industry, pretty much when my brother was born. So we didn’t actually have the filmy upbringing, as people think that we did just because of mom. We were really kept away from everything, and it was the most normal childhood. I grew up in a very big Marwadi family. I had cousins every day.

Normal chidhood

Went to school and was part of all the sports teams. You know, the most normal aspects of that. So as you can expect any newcomer on their first set to have all the challenges where you’re trying to understand to mark your light and, you know, what is, camera left and all of those things. So apart from that, it’s also the fact that I’m working with seasoned professionals like Huma, Rajit, all of them. And you want to obviously bring out your best and do a good job, you know.

While also because I have such a powerful character to remain in character to command the kind of clean presence that is required for a role like this. While hiding all your nervousness because you’re standing in front of Rajit Kapoor and turning around and telling him things like, you know, you need a therapist. So so there’s obviously all of those nerves because you’ve seen these guys on screen and done incredible work.

Mom’s Maine Pyar Kiya memorable

When you’re young and you’re just a small kid and you’re going on holidays and around the world and you have people come up to mom (Bhagyashree) and be like, you know, can you have a picture? Can you have an autograph? We saw many. We are here these many times and all of that. When I was small, for me, it would just be kind of irritating that, you know, I’m on holiday with my mother. Like, can I just have my mother to myself? So, you know, you’re too small to understand anything. But for me, the interesting bit till date is that no matter where I go, whether it’s onsets and professionally or otherwise, I will end up meeting somebody who will turn around and tell me their experience or their story with Mainw Pyar Kiya. This was the first film I saw in the theater. Yeah. You know, this was many pictures. We used to collect photo stamps. So, you know, the fact that yeah. Yeah. The fact that everyone had it had such an influential sort of experience for everybody. And it was part of their life. It was not just a film that they saw. It was something that they have memories with.

Mithya 2 starring Avantika Dassani and Huma Qureshi is streaming on Zee 5.