"I was the only female amongst the 13 of us which excited me to take this project" - Vedita Pratap Singh

ShemarooMe Box Office has managed to carve a good niche so far with one film after the other coming in and impressing its viewers consecutively. Having had some acclaimed films coming in, another one that released on the streamer was The Hidden Strike. The film, from its trailer does give you a dejavu feeling given we have had multiple films on the famous URI surgircal strike but it does have its own identity and in fact, a different take to it too.

In a starcast that is testosterone-driven and almost every cast member is a male, there is one actor that particularly stands out being pretty much the only principal female cast member in the show, and that is Vedita Pratap Singh.

Singh has been on the rube for a rather long time now and been in several films and shows like Bhindi Bazaar Inc, Mumbai 125 KM, and Ssshhh...Koi Hai among others. In an exclusive interview with us, we asked her several questions about the film. When we asked that how did she feel about being the only female cast member in the show, she said, "This is the very reason why I was excited to doing this project. Even though this is a character driven film and there are so many brilliant actors in the cast of The Hidden Strike, and being the only female character makes me stand out and was one of the main reasons to select the script. I was the only female amongst the 13 of us, hence, it excited and attracted me to do the project. Secondly, I was highly pampered on set. Being the only woman there, I was looked after very well by the actors and the production. The good part of the project was, the role was very deglamourized where we didn’t focus much on the hair and make or even clothes, for that matter. For Nikkita’s character, while the physical training was extremely taxing, it did not focus on the female cast looking merely glamorous and worrying about the clothes and touch-up, it was only the army uniform. For the climax scene we even had to blacken our faces due to the gunpowder, so in that aspect, it was quite an easy process for me."

When asked about her character and her preparation for the same, she said, "I’m playing the character of an army woman, Nikkita Sharma in The Hidden Strike. She’s very loyal to her nation and her priority is her country, in any situation. Even on the verge of a bad divorce, no one knows that her husband is on the mission along with her. She’s left a little daughter behind in the care of her mother to go on a mission from which she may or may not return. It’s an extremely challenging character, very different from my previous work. It excited me because I was doing something very different, hardcore, clean and focused. I’m glad the audience will finally be able to enjoy it on an OTT platform through ShemarooMe Box Office."

She added, "Before we started shoot in Jammu, I prepared for Nikkita’s character in the army Cant in Delhi, spending a week with my sister and brother in law. My brother in law introduced him to his friends and I picked up a lot of nuances and observed some of the exercise and how things work in a cantonment area. I asked him for a few ideas as well, so it could be incorporated in her character and that’s how I mentally prepared myself for the role."

The Hidden Strike is currently streaming on Shemaroo Box Office.