Weekend Exclusive | Casting without couch: Outcast's Sandhya Mridul

Casting is always an important aspect in a film, whether it is for full length feature film or for an advertisement. The right person has to play the right role in order to have the correct amount of emphasis in the role that is being played out. Outcast, a leading casting agency, understands this clear lack in the industry and tries to bridge the gap. Sandhya Mridul, founder of Outcast, spoke at length about this business and her experience of getting into it in an exclusive interview with Adgully.

Having begun her career in marketing in a company called KLM, Mridul decided after a point that it was time she made acting, her hobby into a serious career. "I went on doing my marketing in my post graduation and do a job with KLM. I was doing rather well. However I was feeling like I needed to have some fun and so I decided to take a break from my corporate career. Television literally fell into my lap. And that was pretty much a cake walk. On that level I had no worries. I am the kind of a person who believes that you need to shut one door, to open another one. I can do anything, I believe that. My parents have always encouraged that," Mridul said enthusiastically.

Outcast was established after much thought and deliberation. Her experiences in the industry as an actor, put Mridul in a better position to understand the importance of casting. "I was always interested in casting. Then this started building up in me about two years ago. Finally last year I decided to set up a casting agency. There is a point in our life, where we don't know what to do. The supporting characters are those that lift a film, it's not solely about the main actress. I understood that and decided that casting was an important aspect of the film," she said.

Recently KWAN, an entertainment and marketing company had acquired Outcast, bringing together a corporate company into the Indian casting space for the first time. Mridul commented on this association saying, "Kwan have this huge database and they have access to a lot of new channels. I want to have a massive database to choose from and want to be able to sign the right person to the right people. Kwan has the ability to provide me with that. Noting gets work like power in this space and Kwan has that. Kwan is a huge team who knows the market, the history and the know-hows. We have the whole gamut of the making under the umbrella of Kwan."

Mridul further added that Outcast's focus is going to be on films and ad films. "That is what I am going to work for in the next 3 to 6 months," she stated.

"Auditioning in the right manner is another thing that is lacking in this country, I have felt. As an actor I understand this, I have been there so I can bring this edge. I know what actors think, what makes them nervous and what makes them deliver; I intent to personalize that gap and make them comfortable to give their best," she further said about the challenges in this space.

Mridul is also of the opinion that Bollywood today definitely lacks in good quality content and hopes to see better work coming in.

"On the social networking sites, the buzz of Outcast is already vibrant," she said "A lot of actors and film makers get to know about this. And this makes the travel of information makes it thicker," she added. Mridul hasn't yet experimented with intensive marketing on the digital medium. She further says she is here to scout for good talent and create an asset by ensuring the right choice is made. She further urges the young people to be passionate about what they do and to join the industry by putting in a lot of efforts. | By Janees Antoo [janees(at)adgully.com]