Radhika Apte Interview: On 'Sister Midnight,' 'Hunterr' And Why She Can't Watch Violent Films Anymore

Radhika Apte is back in Mumbai after several months. She says she’s happy to be back, but also that balancing work and family—across both India and the UK, where she lives—has become a lot more difficult now after becoming a parent recently. "God, yes, it’s very challenging because the terms of how I’m able to work have completely changed. Since I’m a new parent, I can’t work for more than 12 hours for the first six months; she's so small right now," she gushes.

"I’m doing limited work now until she's a little bigger as I don't want to miss out on her early days," Apte adds, as she settles down for a chat with us about everything, from her chaotic dark comedy Sister Midnight which opened to both critical and commercial acclaim in the UK, to the re-release of Hunterrr (2015), in which she co-starred with Gulshan Devaiah and Sai Tamhankar, as the Harshavardhan Kulkarni directorial hit theatres again recently.

Excerpts from a conversation:

One of the reasons Hunterrr still holds cult status a decade after its original release, is probably because so few films in the adult-comedy genre have been released in India since then. Why do you think that is? Do you think a film like Hunterrr could be made and released in today’s times?

I should be honest; I've not thought about it like that at all until now. Hunterrr has the quality of being a cult film because it’s one of those films everybody enjoys, but nobody wants to admit they enjoyed it. In retrospect, that shock has probably lessened, but I still don’t know why we don’t enjoy sex comedies more realistically or maturely in India. The genre has been interpreted very differently here, almost in a derogatory manner. 

Radhika Apte on the sets of 'Hunterrr'

But it shouldn’t be that way… which is why I think Hunterr was so relatable when it came out. It doesn't speak badly of women; it’s just how young boys looked at women at that point in time. Could the film be made the same way today? I’m not sure, because today's younger generation is different with the amount of exposure they have, and how young kids deal with their own sexuality these days. It’s gotten quite darker too obviously with the influence of social media as well. 

For instance, I recently watched Adolescence… It’s not a sex comedy, obviously, but I live in the UK, so I do see that and relate to it. But I'm also from Pune, and we are not far behind, with just the pressure on young boys to be masculine. In the ‘80s though, it was a totally different ball game; you were only viewed in your society. But now.. you’re viewed by the world. 

So yeah, Hunterrr would be a completely different film had it been made today. It’s so unique because it speaks particularly of that particular time period, and only a particular generation will enjoy that film. I'm not sure the young kids of today would probably understand what that time was and the simplicity of it.

The film had a decent theatrical run back in 2015, but now we are in a period where rom-coms or such niche films are struggling to even get made, much less get a theatrical release. Best case, they go directly to streaming. What is your take on this?

It’s sad. I hope theaters don't get completely overpowered by revenge or action films in which mindless violence is so easy. I don't know how people watch such films; in fact, I've stopped watching them because I just can't enjoy them. So there are some really good films and series that I've still not watched because I think I'm done with violence. On the other hand, I can watch romantic comedies over and over again.. the good ones, obviously. So I don't have a take on this, because I don't understand it.

Radhika Apte

You seem to have consciously stepped back from acting in too many Indian films in recent years, and have expressed your reasoning for the same. However, now that you have a packed 2025 in store, are you looking forward to fully being back in the mix of things?

So I didn’t really take a break as such, but I haven’t been working as much for sure. I'm hoping that my acting career in India stays alive because there are some projects that are very exciting. But my ability to take on films that I don’t really like — but sometimes, you just have to do them — is now reducing. I have this film with Manish (Saali Mohabbat, directed by Tisca Chopra and produced by Manish Malhotra) that is now coming out, and I’m really looking forward to that. Sister Midnight is out in the UK, but I don’t know if it’ll come out in India. Same with Last Days (the American drama directed by Justin Lin). There are a couple of other things I'm shooting this month, but I don't know if I'm supposed to talk about them or not.

You also have the Netflix series, Akka…

Akka is a Yash Raj Films show, and I’ve never worked with them before, so it’s a first for me. It’s also the first time I’ve acted with Keerthy Suresh, and I’m as excited as everyone else is to see how it’s come out, since I’ve rarely done anything this commercial before. The promos look fabulous! 

Radhika Apte and Keerthy Suresh in 'Akka'

On the topic of Sister Midnight, it’s receiving such glowing reviews since its release in the UK, with a few critics even comparing your dark comedic turn in the film to Buster Keaton’s work. Was that the reason you took it up?

Hmm, I think Monica, O My Darling was one of my earlier films where I got to do some comedy. But I chose Sister Midnight because the script was absolutely bonkers, and it’s got such an original voice at the helm of it in Karan Kandhari. Honestly, it's one of the best roles I've ever been offered, so it was a no-brainer to accept it. It was tough in the beginning because the director had a very different approach to performance. But that's why you do this job, right? Because you like to be thrown into uncomfortable situations and out of your comfort zone, in terms of your art. I don't know if it'll release in Indian theatres or not, but I'm hoping it'll one day come on a platform, and then people can hopefully watch it.

And do you think Indian audiences will accept a film like Sister Midnight?

I'm not entirely sure, in the sense that I don't know how it will be commercially received. I have to say, I've been in the theaters in the UK, and I've met a lot of people who've watched it and really liked it. But the only reason I say that I’m not sure is because people’s attention spans are really decreasing. If they don’t understand what’s happening in five minutes, they lose interest in the film. That’s my only worry. 

A film like Sister Midnight needs patience. I mean, it’s a very engaging film, but it’s also one that provokes people to think. But these days, at this moment in fact, when I’m trying to write or just understand what other writers, producers, and director friends are going through, the brief always is that you can't make people think when they are watching a film. It's a really tricky time. (sighs)

Radhika Apte in 'Sister Midnight'

So, is the plan to keep shuttling between the UK and India as much as possible over the coming years? Since you’re doing so much global work now, how has your image as an Indian actor changed, especially on international sets?

There are a couple of films in India, two in the UK and one in the US I’ve agreed to, all in the process of getting finalised and contracts being signed. So these are the five projects in the pipeline for this year, and hopefully next year I can begin directing.

As far as working in international projects... take Sister Midnight for example, which is entirely a British film. It’s not an Indian film at all, and it wasn't made for an Indian audience either. I don't mean it in a bad way; I'm just saying that it was made by Film4 and BFI, and it fits well into the kind of projects they make. They like to take on really different ideas and risks, and I wasn't really looked at as an “Indian actor,” you know what I mean? I was just looked at as an standalone actor. Obviously, it was very important that I'm from India, because my character is as Indian as she can get. But there was no prior perception attached to me at all, which was great.

There is a lot of buzz about you making your first film as a director with Koyta; when is that expected to begin?

So Koyta is definitely something that is on the cards; it’s an excellent story and I’m going to direct it. It’s an action-fantasy film. But I don’t know if it’ll be my directorial debut, since I have a couple of other scripts that might work out earlier.

You did quite a few south Indian films earlier, the most notable of them being Pa. Ranjith’s Kabali (2016) with Rajinikanth. Kumudha was such a fascinating character.

Kabali was such a great experience to be part of. Rajnikanth was amazing, because that man… goodness, that man's great, he was so lovely to work with. 

Rajinikanth and Radhika Apte in 'Kabali'

You were also vocal about facing some unpleasant experiences during your work in south Indian cinema. But now that so many Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films are going pan-Indian, would you consider doing a regional project again? 

So I didn’t stop doing south Indian films just because of a couple of bad experiences I'd had. I started acting in them as I was trying to find some commercial value in my career at that point in time. I am very grateful for them, as they were life-savers for me back then financially. So it was not all bad. It’s just that I realised that there were so many south Indian actresses who speak the language really well, and I was taking away the opportunity from someone who could do the role much better. There was no point in accepting films that wanted me just because I was from so-called north India — but I’m not even north Indian, I’m from Maharashtra! I just didn’t like the idea that the south Indian film industry was following that trend of casting... I don’t want to say fairer, because I'm not even fair, but more light-skinned actresses, perhaps. 

It was also really hard to completely learn a language I don't speak, and then I couldn’t improvise or understand what I was saying either. So I wasn’t enjoying it too much and decided to only accept something if it was the role of a lifetime, like working with Rajinikanth in Kabali.