Karisma learnt to speak Bengali, rolled cigarettes for part in Brown

LOS ANGELES: Bollywood actress Karisma Kapoor, whose noir-thriller show "Brown" is the only Indian show at the Berlin Series Market Selects platform, took the method acting route to play her part in the series.

The series is based on the 2016 novel "City of Death" by Abheek Barua, adapted by Digvijay Singh, Sunayana Kumari and Mayukh Ghosh and directed by Abhinay Deo, reports "Variety".

It follows Rita Brown (played by Karisma), a world-weary and recovering alcoholic but ace detective in the Kolkata Police, belonging to the city's small but influential Anglo-Indian community, who is assigned to the murder case of a young woman from a well-connected family.

Apart from not wearing any makeup to achieve a worn-out look for her character, Karisma also used method acting techniques to enhance the role. Someone who rarely consumes alcohol in real life, she would skip dinner, have a few drinks, and pass out in order to wake up with a hangover.

As per 'Variety', Kapoor, who is a non-smoker, also learnt to roll a cigarette. The actor also trained with a language coach to learn the Bengali language that is native to Kolkata and to speak a few words of it and English with an Anglo-Indian accent.

The actress further mentioned that "many people around the world will identify with her".

On the reason for this, the actress told 'Variety' that "she's (her character) beat up, she's been through so much, people have knocked her out. And that's what happens in normal life".

"It's not only depression, or alcoholism - nobody discusses this, but there's a time where people just become irrelevant. She bounces back, because she has it in her. Rita Brown is very inspirational to women out there and that's something that really touched me because I've also been through a journey in life."