Actress Nyra Banerjee, whose playing some amazing daredevil stunts in Khatron ke Khiladi, shares her stint in the show, giving up on her fears, and more in this exclusive chat with The Pioneer.
Tejal Sinha
Facing all her fears so gracefully in the stunt-based reality show Khatron Ke Khiladi season 13, Nyra Banerjee has proved she’s more than just a glamour quotient. The way she’s aced the tasks in the show, she’s brought in who Nyra truly is.
“I’ve always been a daring person, emotionally,” begins Nyra. “Ever since my childhood, I’ve taken up several challenges. With my dad being a commander in the Indian Navy, we are from the defense background. And so, we’ve always had this adventure deep inside our heart. Since my dad had always lived far for his postings, I’d always lived in a very protected environment. My mom used to not allow me to go out and stop the adventurous side of me. I always wanted to explore it and of course as I told you I’ve been a strong woman right since my childhood,” shares the Pisachini actress as she felt Khatron Ke Khiladi was a great way to experience adventures, stunts, and put through the pressure mentally, emotionally, and physically. “I am an emotionally and physically a strong person, but mentally I get tired to keep the focus on certain things,” shares Nyra as she begins to share with us the reason to be a part of the daredevil show. She continues, “I have focus issues, so this game requires immense focus and I thought that I would really get a great practice to be mentally strong all the time. And then Rohit Shetty Sir! I’m a huge fan of him, his movies and he’s hosting something like this, he’s done all these stunts and by the end of the day it’s like if Rohit Shetty sir ever makes a movie and requires a woman to do good stunts then I could be a great cast (she laughs out loud). So anyways jokes apart, the truth was I really wanted to experience that adventurous side of me.”
Initially, she reveals that as soon as she reached Cape Town, she felt sick, and was infact taking the wrong medicines. “I ended up taking muscle relaxants day and night, which made me very sleepy and lethargic. The first first ten days were challenging for me, and we’d already started like 3-4 episodes by then. It was very difficult because I could feel that I had the mental energy but my body is not allowing me to move forward or be aggressive, but still, every time I came through the round where I had to save myself something emotionally triggered me. I would perform so well that I would get saved every time. Right now, I am in a state where I am learning to sync my mind, my emotions and body all three on together while I do a stunt.”
Khatron Ke Khiladi is one such show no matter what, you’ll have to give up on the fear that you have. While some might fear heights, water or creepy crawlies and snakes, we’ve seen either the contesatnt give up or ace it with the grace. Well, its surely safe to say that Nyra is one of those who faced her fears gracefully. From being scared of heights to creepy crawlies, she says, “Now I don’t care because I have done too many creepy crawlies stunts so now me and creepy crawlies can co-exist, with me, along me, or on me (she laughs). I don’t fear them whatsoever. Not even the snakes or anything. I learnt swimming one week ago before I joined KKK, I did not know how to swim, I always had this fear of drowning but Cape Town water is so cold. It took time it took a couple of stunts for me to get comfortable with the water stunts and now I am doing it well.”
On the show, Nyra is seen sharing a really close bond with former Bigg Boss contestant Archana Gautam, and actress Aishwarya Sharma. Sharing the bond that they share, she says, “I really connect with them because they are such pure souls. We are three very different people but we are three connected really hard because we only wish well for each other and don’t have a competitive nature. We just have the nature of doing better than yesterday. We really motivate each other. It’s like if one of them wins, I feel so good and even if I lose to one of them, I don’t feel bad because I know I lost to a friend. I know I have another chance to compete with somebody else and I know we are in a competition but these two guys are my best friends.”
Apart from the trio, she also shares a great bond with Shiv, Dino, and Arijth. Infact, there has also been a video thats been viral on social media where Shiv is seen consoling her after she was injured. Well, she couldn’t agree much as she says, “Me and Shiv share a great camaraderie on the set. I was very upset because I had hurt my knees very badly and I was not able to do a stunt because the wound that I got was constantly cutting open again. It would not heal and I was like giving up and I was like I don’t want to get injured and how am I supposed to do stunts? She kept consoling me don’t worry its a lifetime opportunity. it’s okay you should give it to hundred percent because later on you will regret that you lost this opportunity was trying to console me and make me feel good about the stunt not going okay, it’s okay there is another chance the next stunt will go great. And we often console each other. Amongst the guys Dino, Shiv, and Arijit are very close to me, especially Shiv and I spend most of my time with him after the girls.”
Be it Pishachini or Divya-Drishti, or any of her other projects, we were eager to know what attracts her to be a part of the supernatural shows. To this, Nyra who believes it’s easy to play the bad-guy character says, “I think you should ask the production houses, because whenever there is any supernatural genre or a modern, beautiful girl or a hot girl genre, where the girl is very confident, well spoken and determined and has a strong personality, they always look for Nyra Banerjee. I think that’s the image I portray on screen and I honestly enjoy doing that because I do not like playing a ‘damsel in distress’. Somehow I think that we are out of that generation, nobody is that damsel in distress anymore. Everybody is working hard and making their way. It’s okay to play that part but in TV serials it goes too long that it could be a little monotonous you know.”
