Last year, actor Saiyami Kher played a paraplegic cricketer in R Balki’s Ghoomer to much acclaim. Then, there was 8 AM Metro, a story of an unlikely friendship between a man and a woman who run into each other on the Metro. Continuing her streak of playing characters with substance, she has now transformed into a firefighter in Rahul Dholakia’s Agni. Kher shares that she greenlights a script only when the story has heart. And, Agni, is all heart. “I am embarrassed of my lack of awareness about women firefighters. These people save our lives and we are so unaware about this department,” says the actor, who debuted eight years ago with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Mirzya.Kher informs that firefighting entails a lot of details that a layman is unlikely to be aware of, inlcuding how water mustn’t be used to douse fire if certain chemicals are involved, and how one discovers the source of the fire. These are things she learnt as part of the prep, which also included physical training on an obstacle course at Byculla Fire Station for a few days, something she thoroughly enjoyed. What was most interesting, though, was speaking to women firefighters to understand what the profession demands from them in particular. “Some of their families are supportive while some aren’t. Many of them start at the young age of 22-23, and learn to deal with death at close quarters, so that also requires counselling,” she says. Needless to say, it has been an eye-opener for the actor.At the end of the day, it all boils down to job satisfaction for Kher. She derives a sense of fulfilment from being part of meaningful cinema. Although her debut film did not fare well at the box office, the actor has had the good fortune of working with the creme de la creme of filmmaking, including Anurag Kashyap, Neeraj Pandey, R Balki and Ashwini Iyer Tiwari.“There’s no denying the fact that commercial success is important in this industry. But, I have also learnt that one cannot keep living in the past, whether it is success or failure,” she says, adding, “I’m grateful that in spite of Mirzya not being a commercial hit, I’ve been able to work with good filmmakers.”
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