Kani Kusruti says playing rape survivor in Assi was slightly easier than dealing with real-world traumas | Interview

Kani Kusruti talks about why playing a rape survivor in Anubhav Sinha's Assi is not as difficult as dealing with the realities of being a woman.

Anubhav Sinha’s Assi has been billed as an urgent watch. The courtroom drama reunites the filmmaker with Taapsee Pannu, who previously starred in Mulk and Thappad. In this film, Taapsee plays a feisty lawyer fighting a rape case. Acclaimed actor Kani Kusruti takes on the challenging role of the rape survivor in the film. Ahead of the film’s release, Kani speaks with Hindustan Times about getting into the psyche of her character and more.

Kani Kusruti in a still from Anubhav Sinha's Assi.

Kani Kusruti on playing a rape survivor in Assi

Assi focuses on the battle two women - Kani and Taapsee’s characters - have to wage against the legal system and corruption in order to get justice in a gruesome rape case. Kani’s portrayal of the rape survivor has already earned her plaudits in the early reviews. While many would assume that playing a survivor and filming a gruesome assault scene would trigger some trauma, Kani says that it was easier than dealing with the real-life traumas and challenges.

“Honestly, most women in India have probably gone through some form of assault at some point in their lives. That way, don’t you feel that as a person, I may face more struggles than as an actor, where you are trying to do something that did not actually happen? It’s way easier than living here,” says the actor.

‘My co-stars were all terrified’

Kani says that her co-actors, who play the perpetrators, were ‘terrified’ of filming the rape scene. “This is where I know that all my co-actors are acting. In fact, they were all quite terrified to do that. We were talking about,” she explains.

The actor says that women’s reality in most places is one of caution, where one has to think and rethink their decisions in light of unsafe spaces and leering eyes. She says that, in comparison, playing a survivor on screen is easier. “That’s still a much better place where we are trying to talk about it, rather than going through it on a day-to-day basis, thinking about what to do alone on a street and things like that. In that aspect, making a film about a subject that really matters to us is slightly easier than the actual reality,” she explains.

All about Assi

Apart from Taapsee and Kani, Assi also stars. Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Kumud Mishra, Supriya Pathak, and Manoj Pahwa, along with cameos by Naseeruddin Shah and Divya Dutta. Written by Gaurav Solanki, directed by Anubhav Sinha, and produced by Bhushan Kumar under the T-Series banner, Assi releases in theatres on 20 February.