Niharika NM has been a social media star for years, with a massive following across platforms. While she’s far from an unfamiliar face, acting is still a relatively new journey for her. She will now be seen in her fourth film, ‘Bhai Tera Star Hai’, which stars Raghav Juyal opposite her. Brimming with excitement, Niharika is every bit as vivacious and candid in person as she is on the internet, which also reflects in her vibrant persona even on the internet.In a candid conversation, Niharika opens up about her latest film, which releases on July 30, her ambitions as an actor, learning to shut out negativity on social media, embracing self-confidence, and much more. Read on…
What attracted you the most about ‘Bhai Tera Star Hai’?
Firstly, the story I thought was absolutely chaotic and nuts in the best way possible and I felt like I personally, I enjoy watching chaotic comedies and confusion comedies and comedy of errors and this was exactly just that. And as an audience, when I had to visualise the script on paper, I really, really enjoyed it. So I thought I want to do films that I would enjoy as an audience. So I signed up right away and as far as my character is concerned, it’s a beautiful ensemble. Everybody has their part, everybody’s doing their bit, all of them together makes what the film is. That’s what makes the film what it is, honestly. The coming together of all the characters and them sprinkling their personalities on top of the characters that they’ve been given. I think it’s a beautiful, chaotic mess that is truly a riot.
‘Idhayam Murali ‘, ‘Perusu’, ‘Mithra Mandali ‘ and now this, one does see a variety in your choices..
I want to try and push my limits. I want to learn more. Because I feel like I’ve done the same type of genre online forever. I’m bored. I’m so bored. And I like being stimulated. I like when my mind is stimulated. And I think the monotony of it made me feel like I was in a rut. And I felt like I had no way to show exactly what I could do or what I wanted to do. And I picked the films also like that, where initially I picked comedy, dark comedy, black comedy, just horror comedy, all of these I’ve picked. But I just wanted to see different types of humour that I can explore before I can move on to other emotions. Just to try and see if I’m good at what I do first.
Because of your work as a content creator, the audience does know of you, as oppose to how it would be for a complete newcomer. Does that add to your advantage or is it a challenge to break out of that stereotype and find new characters always?
Sometimes I feel like, you know, people expect me to be just a certain way, because they’re used to it. But I’ve also noticed that they’re quite open to seeing other variations, because I also understand that as a person, you have different facets, and you explore different emotions. And I can’t be funny all the time or happy. So I think it humanises me a little more. And as far as content goes, I think I’ve always stuck to curating content, I’ve never shared too much lifestyle content or anything about my life as much on the internet. So they don’t really know who I am as a person.
Has that been in conscious choice to not let people know more about you as a person?
Yes, it was actually, because I started out on the internet very young at 16. And I’ve been on the internet for the past decade. So it feels like I had to grow up in front of an audience. So when I fail, or when I lose, it happens publicly. So it can be a little bit hard to take or fathom or digest when you’re that young. And I think I’ve learned from my own mistakes not to give away too much information that could be used against you personally. Now, people are criticising the content of the work that I do, I can’t, I won’t take it personally, I will take it as criticism and improve because they can’t comment on anything personally, because they don’t know. That was a conscious decision.
What was it like sharing screen space with Raghav Juyal and Sanjay Kapoor ?
I think I had a really, really good time working with Raghav. He’s extremely professional, but he’s also equally funny off camera as he is on camera. And he has this infectious energy, which truly lifts all our spirits up, even if it’s like a very odd timing that we’re shooting at. And I think that’s a little bit rare, where somebody is just that extremely ecstatic to do their job that it really makes everybody else also equally passionate. And Sanjay Kapoor sir is truly such a charming man. He always has a smile on his face, and he gets so involved in his scenes. And he cares so much about the script, about the film, about what he’s doing, about his wardrobe, like he’s really, really fully involved, like he truly cares. And even during promotions, I feel like he’s always like, you know, why are we not doing that? Why are we not doing this? We should push this more. He really, really cares. And I think it’s such a beautiful thing, considering he doesn’t really need to.
As you made your transition to acting, did you get any advice or suggestions that you took seriously?
You know, I feel like most of the advice that I got, usually what I’ve noticed is people who don’t really do much on their own are first to give advice, and that goes for free. So I’ve learned to not take advice from people who haven’t done something themselves. Yeah, seriously. And I think one thing that I’ve learned through this decade is that it does not matter what people think about you, because opinions are not facts. It’s okay to not be everybody’s cup of tea, because some people don’t like tea. And that’s completely okay. They are entitled to their opinion. However, I will not muddle my head and what I know of myself and the faith I have in myself with external validation or opinions, even though my job sometimes depends on external validation. I think having a strong core and believing in yourself, I think I’m optimistically delusional.But I also think it comes from me feeling like I’m not good enough, from me having imposter syndrome for the longest time growing up on the internet. And now that I’m getting older, wiser, a little bit, I’ve learned from my own mistakes. I’ve learned how I felt in the past. And I know that it’s not true. Like those feelings are valid, but they’re also based on somebody else’s opinion, which is not my time or effort or energy.
So, did it take time to reach this point where cutting out on the noise and having self-belief came naturally? Or were you always like this?
I think, most importantly, it took a lot of time. It took a lot of time of not feeling grounded, not feeling like I’m enough, not feeling like I’m worth it, or any of the good stuff, you know, because I feel like we always tend to focus on the terrible things that people tell us or the horrible things that happened to us. Eventually, slowly, just gradually, I don’t think there was like a turning point or a day where I woke up and I was like, today, I’m going to think differently. I think it just happened because I was so jaded from feeling like shit about other people’s opinions. So I think, slowly, my brain learned to cut the noise out and focus on what’s important. All I care about now is what I think about myself, what my friends and family think about me, because they sometimes believe in me when I don’t even. And that really helps, like having a strong support system. I think for me, particularly my team, my family, my friends, they’ve always been so rock solid and have had faith in me, even in moments that I’ve entirely given up. And that really helps me power through and push through and remind myself because they constantly remind me.
Is there a dream role or genre that you’d love to explore next?
I think I have a very crazy one. I have grown up watching stuff like Dexter and all. I loved Obsession recently. I want to definitely play a weird psychopath or like a killer. I just want to do something insane that would make people feel terrified. I want to do extremely rooted stories where no glam, no nothing, it’s just like pure emotion, because sometimes I watch films like that. And I sob when I’m watching them, like I need a box of tissues.
