‘I don’t work to be likeable’: Kritika Kamra on Matka King, complex women and stepping away from TV fame

Dubai: “I am not going to give in to the algorithm and the populist,” says Kritika Kamra, Bollywood actress and new bride, with a clarity that feels deliberate rather than performative.

The comment comes soon after her intimate March 11th Mumbai wedding quietly turned into a social media storm. What was meant to be a personal celebration inside her apartment with close friends and family found an unexpectedly wide audience online. Simply put, those pictures in which she wore this simple and elegant red sari with a gold border made you want to believe in love, soulmates, and everything in between.

“We didn’t think anybody would be interested in our wedding day, but my phone blew up,” she says with a laugh. Her red sari, unlike the traditional heaviy-brocaded saris, now has its own fan following too!

“I was not trying to market my saree either! Honestly, we didn’t think it would become a thing.”

While Kritika acknowledges the attention and reveled in the reluctant attention for a bit, she makes it clear that she isn't interested in building on it.

“I do want to be known as an actor, and I'm working very clearly, very actively in that direction.”

That focus is reflected in her recent choices, particularly Matka King, a period drama set in the gambling circuits of 1960s and 70s Bombay, out on Prime Video now. It is a world she says she knew very little about before taking on the project.

“Matka is actually a betting game that was really popular in Bombay in the 60s and the 70s. It was a phenomenon,” she explains.

“Everybody was playing this game. The film industry, the underworld, the rich and the famous, the mill workers, the common man.”

The scale of that ecosystem is what drew her in, but it is her character’s place within it that makes the role stand out.

“I’m also a player of the game, and I’m somebody who’s responsible for multiplying it exponentially and kind of start conducting the game,” she says.

It is not a role that seeks approval from the audience, and that is a conscious choice.

“This is a bit of a risky character. It invites some judgement, which I welcome,” she says.

“I don’t work towards making my characters likeable. That’s not my job. My job is to make them real.”

Perhaps, that's what makes her tick.

“It’s really boring to be a one-note person. Nobody is actually,” she says. “You could be a perfectly good person, but you can have messy relationships. You can be greedy or selfish or attracted to something that’s not good.”

That perspective also shapes how she views female representation in mainstream Hindi storytelling.

“If we could move away from the sacrificing mother, wife, sister, or only the love interest or the vamp, and have contradictions and multitudes, it would be so much more interesting,” she says.

She adds that such a shift is more likely “when we have more women writing and directing.”

Working with filmmaker Nagraj Manjule on Matka King gave her the space to explore that kind of layered performance.

“We were always on our toes. It just came out of respect,” she says.

“There was a lot of room for us to have fun.”

Her dynamic with co-actor Vijay, she says, developed without much effort.

“We didn’t need to break the ice. It was really instinctive. We had this unsaid understanding.”

Even with a growing body of work, Kamra admits she is not always the first choice for roles like this.

“I had to audition twice to convince them that I can be this. Nobody would consider me,” she says. “I don’t think people see me and they’re like, yeah, you’re the one.”

She does not sound discouraged by that perception.

“I really like when people get surprised.”

That willingness to step away from expectations has shaped her career decisions, including her move away from television at a time when she was at the peak of her popularity.

“I quit television at the peak of my TV years,” she says. “I realised that popularity feels great, but it’s not my driving force.”

Instead, she chose to focus on work that she found more fulfilling, even if it came with uncertainty.

“For me, the experience has to be fulfilling. I want to come out a better actor on the other side.”

Her approach to her personal life follows a similar line. The response to her wedding reinforced how quickly private moments can become public.

“I’ve been here long enough to know that not everything is for the online world,” she says.

While she describes parts of her life as stable and fulfilling, she is clear that her work continues to be unpredictable.

“Is anybody happy? I don’t know,” she says. “There are certain parts of me that are very happy. I feel loved and safe.”

Work, however, operates differently.

“This is volatile. Success, failure, rejection. It’s just so unpredictable,” she says.

“If it got to a point where I was like, okay, I’ve done my best, how boring is that?”

For now, Kamra seems comfortable with that uncertainty, even if it means not having all the answers.

“I have my eyes set on some goals, and I think that’s what keeps me going.”