Meet three avatars of Durga in Urvi

When debtutant director BS Pradeep Varma’s Urvi releases this week, it brings his years of research on a gripping subject to its logical end — it’s consumption and interpretation by audiences. The film, as he says, is an exploration of the dark underbelly of the flesh trade and the helplessness of most of the women caught in it. Starring Sruthi Hariharan, Shraddha Srinath and Shwetha Pandit in lead roles, here, the three ladies tell us what their characters in the film are like.
SRUTHI HARIHARAN
PLAYS: ASHA
About the character: Like her name, my character is the beacon of hope in this tale. When we talk about women who are trafficked and end up in brothels, we realize that these are women whose lives cannot even be imagined. In the larger sense, it seems to them that there is only darkness. They don’t even have the basic freedom to go out any point of time they want to or wish that they had a life or some respect in society. That’s the basic thing a women demands. Asha is the character who comes into a situation like this carrying hope and showing that there is light at the end of the tunnel. She is a leader who never gives up and represents Yukti.
SHRADDHA SRINATH
PLAYS: SUZIE
About the character: I play the character of a commercial sex worker; one of who ends up in a brothel owing to certain situations. Considering the harsh realities these girls encounter in their lives, most of them tend to be pessimistic. But Suzie is eternally positive and believes that all that is happening to her is temporary. She is a die-hard romantic and hopeful of finding her her knight in shining armour who will rescue her from the drudgery her life has become. At the outset, she comes across as this soft-spoken and meek girl, but in the course of the film she gets to make a few decision and that's when you realize how strong she really is. She represents Bhakti.
SHWETHA PANDIT
PLAYS: DEVI
About the character: My character is also that of a commercial sex worker, but one who was born and brought up within a brothel. Devi is all about power — in her thoughts, words and actions. Yet she is very loving. Her character is an amalgamation of a lot of virtues that all human beings have. She also shows you that if you subject a woman to extremes, like mental or physical torture, for instance, there is a limit to which she will take it. Once you cross the threshold of her tolerance, there is no stopping her and then you can do nothing but fear her and that is Devi — the one who has that aura around her that she is to be feared. She
represents Shakti.