Meet Scheherazade

This project is the realisation of Dharker’s very personal dream. “I have always wanted to work with the RSC and have waited for the right opportunity to come along. I have also been drawn to the stories of Arabian Nights and have made a great effort to find different translations over the years,” says the actress.

Dharker plays a character called Scheherazade who is the storyteller for the “thousand and one nights”. For the play is based on the original stories from Arabian Nights,she will rehearse in London till November,before moving to Stratford. However,Dharker feels as if she has been preparing for this role for a very long time. “Sometimes a dream role can come along and really take your breath away because you realise that you have been imagining yourself in a story and it seems to materialise around you,” she says.

The regularity with which this London-based actor bags major international projects shows how roles are no longer stereotypical for Indian actors abroad. “They being typecast may have been the case a few years ago,things are very different now. Producers,directors and writers are very interested in making their cast as vibrant as possible. Were this not true,I would not have been offered roles like Joan of Arc,roles in Doctor Who,and on Coronation Street as a regular character,” she says.

Despite finding her niche abroad,Dharker sees herself “very much as an Indian actress from Bombay”.

Reacting to the Wikipedia entry that refers to her as a British actress,she says,“I stopped using it as a reliable source after I saw their entry. I have no idea how,or the time,to change wrong postings.” The actor,who shot to fame with The Terrorist,expresses her interest in working with new,young and talented Indian directors,particularly in the “wonderful” films of Zoya Akhtar,Anurag Kashyap and Rajat Kapoor.

But it’s the Mumbai food,not checking out scripts,that remains her priority while visiting the city. “I love going to Soam in Babulnath for khichdi and masala chai,

Rajdhani for a quick thali and Britannia Café for its great Berry Pulao. I have to stop now because all this makes me very homesick.”