Actress Shraddha Das has been moving across industries for years, but Search: The Naina Murder Case has given her something she long waited for: a role that lets her be seen the way she always wanted. In a candid conversation with Moneycontrol, she opened up about her early struggles, the long road to earning meaningful parts, and the unexpected journey that brought her to Raksha, the character who instantly clicked with her.
Shraddha remembers her earliest days in Mumbai as a haze of relentless auditions and uncertainty. “To me, Mumbai… I think around 500,000 auditions. Obviously, what difficult as a newcomer, background, family, films, to audition, South film, maybe second lead… glamour… But this is a series where I got complete success as an artist and I got complete due. It has been a very long journey… someone came and didn't launch me on a platter… But when you get such appreciation now, it seems that all of this was worth it.”
Talking about working across industries, Shraddha refuses to slot any single language as more challenging than another. “You can't segregate and say that one language was like this… Sometimes it works very smoothly in some projects, sometimes it doesn’t… It’s a project-to-project thing. There were some films where they told me the role is important but later cut it. Such things used to hurt me a lot… Now I’m very particular before going to the set.”
She admits that many roles in the past were trimmed or sidelined. “Yes, it has happened many times that I have been cut… 30 days shoot, but they cut the role, or not kept it in the promotion or trailer… Earlier I used to think this is a small role, but today I feel I’m able to do the work I wanted to do for years.”
There were moments of loneliness and doubt too. “I reached a point where I was not feeling happy coming back home at the end of the day as an actor… I was doing films with very big producers, directors, actors, but still I felt something was missing… This has been my conscious decision for the last few years: whatever I do, I should feel good after coming home.”
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She speaks openly about the toll long hours take on female actors. “Here we have only worked for 12 hours… Boys wash their face and sleep. Girls remove makeup, apply cream… For girls it’s 17 hours literally… Maybe some middle line, even if it’s 10 hours, will still be balanced.”
On why thrillers like Naina Murder Case work, she laughs gently at her own habits as a viewer. “As a viewer, I used to watch a lot of thrillers… Today, because of OTT, in five minutes you feel bored and switch… Generally I end up watching a thriller only. That’s why this genre is going on so well.”
As for the big mystery: the killer. Shraddha treads carefully. “Obviously I knew about the script for the first season… I also know who the killer is… but till date no one has guessed the right name.”
Looking ahead, she already has two films ready. “I have already shot for one film with Jaideep Ahlawat ji… And I have shot a film produced by Manoj Bajpayee ji… They will release any time soon.”
Her list of favourite co-actors is long. “Konkona… Jeet… Jaideep sir, Manoj sir… Even Allu Arjun. He is very funny actually… Arya 2 was one of the most emotional, memorable films of our lives.”
Through the stops, starts, and detours, Shraddha holds onto one guiding truth: a role should make her feel fulfilled when she goes home at night. Raksha did that for her, and the response to Naina Murder Case has only strengthened her belief that persistence always pays off.
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