Young actress Riva Arora has not only been a social media sensation but also a great actor at a very young age. Riva, who was recently seen in Chhatriwali, speaks to The Pioneer about working on the film, balancing her acting life with the world of content creation, and more.
Amartya Smaran
Riva Arora, who amassed a massive social media following for her charming looks and acting skills, was recently featured in Zee5’s Chhatriwali, starring Rakul Preet Singh, Sumeet Vyas, Satish Kaushik, and Prachee Shah.
In one of her Instagram posts, the actress wrote, “I can’t thank everyone enough for all the support, but really, thank you so much for your love and support.” This shows how overwhelmed she is by the response the film has garnered over the last few weeks since its release on January 20. Chhatriwali has racked up over 100 million watch minutes within just a few days of its release on the OTT platform. The film tells the story of Sanya Dhingra, who tries her best to break the taboo of sex education while actively seeking a full-time job.
Just one day ahead of her birthday, on the cusp of entering a rather exciting adulthood, Riva Arora interacted with The Pioneer via Zoom. The Uri actress discussed working on a social drama like Chhatriwali, acting alongside Rakul Preet Singh, balancing acting life and creating content for the gram, and her desire to dabble with international film industries.
“Chhatriwali happened in the most beautiful way. We were at the RSVP office for a meeting. I auditioned from home in 2021 because the pandemic was still on, back then. When they told us about the script, we really loved it. We were just like, We have to do this film because it has such a beautiful story,””shared Riva.
Riva has around 9.6 million followers on Instagram, and the number doesn’t seem to stop growing. We asked her whether all the praise and adulation ever got to her head. To which she replied, “Acting is what I love, and I will continue doing that. Being both a creator and an actress, I always try to balance both. Whenever I get free time, I make a video or click a picture and tell my fans on Instagram about what’s happening. Even when I’m on the set, I always inform my fans online.”
Guess what? The Mom star doesn’t feel acting is as challenging as it seems if one really loves it to the core. “Well! If you love acting, you don’t find anything extremely challenging because if you really want to do it, it will come automatically,” said Riva.
All said, she shared one particular instance where she found it hard while filming Chhatriwali. “The emotional scene that I had to perform with Rakul di was difficult because there was this wedding that was happening near the shooting spot,” shared Riva with a chuckle. “We had to shoot that multiple times because all we could hear was the noise from the venue. The acting part was not difficult, but dubbing for it was a challenge. I had to dub in the exact same way. The first take turned out great, and Tejas sir was there to support me throughout the process.”
The Gunjan Saxena actress was all praise for her co-star Rakul Preet Singh, “It was amazing working with Rakul di, Rajesh sir, and Prachee ma’am. I got to work with some great actors, and I learned so much from them. There was this positive vibe on the set, and we all started bonding on the very first day. Everybody was so friendly, and I’m grateful to be working with them. I’d say working with them was one of the best experiences. Rakul Di and I already share a good bond, so it was easy to work with her even on the emotional scenes. It was a joy sharing screen space with all of them.”
As we’ve informed you earlier that Chhatriwali deals with breaking the shackles of social conventions such as sex education in India, Riva feels it’s imperative to talk about such topics in the open and spread awareness among the youth. “Yes! Definitely, for people who don’t know much about it and aren’t aware of what’s going on in the world; I feel it is important to talk about how miscarriages and abortions happen. It’s rather important for teenagers to know about it. And this movie has been getting so much love and support for its content. I’m super happy and grateful for that.”
Speaking of the best performance that she’s witnessed in recent years, she said, “It was a pleasure working with Vicky Mamu at Uri. He’s such a talented actor, and he’s so down to earth. His acting in the film was one of the finest performances that I’ve seen in recent times. Also, the entire cast of Chhatriwali has outdone themselves in terms of their performances.” The Bharat actress further added, “I want to do great in Bollywood and I also want to work down South. I’d also love to enter the Hollywood and Korean industries and learn as much as I can from all the industries across the world.”
The Chhatriwali actress has a couple of projects lined up for 2023. “I can’t tell you the names of the projects, but I can assure everyone that 2023 will be one of the best years of my life. I recently worked on a web series with Zee, which will come out soon,” signed off Riva Arora.
