Radhika Apte featured in the May issue of Grazia India in which she talked at length about cinema, and how she was exploited on the sets of Rakta Charitra. For the role, she de-glammed herself to play the role of a village girl. But, Apte said that she was exploited on the sets of Rakta Charitra since she wasn’t getting paid much for the movie. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do the film. I honestly felt very exploited because I wasn’t getting paid much,” she said. “They told me I’d be doing one film but then they made me shout in Tamil and Telugu as well. So, I was like okay, this is a lot of work and commitment. The film had big actors and the shoots would never start on time. I have never been desperate for work. So, I didn’t feel like I needed to endure long hours on the set when my time and talent wasn’t being optimised.”
The actress further said that this made her question her career. “It was during this time that I began questioning my career path; l thought to myself ‘Is this how the business works?'” she said. “Having said that, I am a big Ram Gopal Varma fan, especially of Rangeela and Satya. I was excited about the opportunity to learn from him on set. And while we, as a team, did have fun, the culture of favoritism and exploitation (of time) was prevalent. I was naive at the time so I didn’t say much but this episode made me realise the importance of having my time respected. I learned to put my foot down.” Rakta Charitra is a 2010 Indian political action thriller film based on the life of Paritala Ravindra. The film was directed by Ram Gopal Varma and written by Prashant Pandey. The film starred Vivek Oberoi as Pratap Ravi, while Sudeep, Shatrughan Sinha, Abhimanyu Singh, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Sushant Singh, and Radhika Apte play supporting roles.
