Ayesha Dharker on her role in the award-winning film Outsourced, which released last Friday

From an intense role The Terrorist to the light, romantic role in Outsourced, how has the journey been?

I’ve always enjoyed doing something different so, even though it was not a conscious exercise to avoid typecasting, I’ve ended up doing work that is pretty varied. When I did The Terrorist, I was very lucky to be offered that film, because there was a synchronicity between the kind of film Santosh Sivan wanted to make and the kind of film I was interested in. I then did a lot of other films and have recently been doing a lot of comedies. I always feel sort of honoured to be asked to do comedies because people who write them are very bright. I really enjoyed the script of Outsourced and knew immediately that I wanted to do the film.

How did you land the role?
I remember meeting the director and producer of the film and we got on well. I was asked to come back to read the script with Josh Hamilton. When I returned, I dressed like the character I play in the film in every detail, down to the shoes and watch I was wearing. I got so involved in putting this character together that it only occurred to me at the last minute that my idea might be totally different from theirs. They told me later that, that was the thing which helped them make up their minds.

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