Aishwarya Raj Bhakuni is currently seen as Aradhya in Star Plus and Studio LSD’s O Humnava Tum Dena Saath Mera, and the actor is enjoying exploring the layered emotions of her character. With the Bharadwaj sisters Aradhya and Aparajita (Sriti Jha) once again under the same roof, their complicated equation has taken another turn. While Aradhya has always struggled with feeling overshadowed by her elder sister, her new life after marriage has only intensified those insecurities.
Talking about Aradhya’s current mindset, Aishwarya says, “Aradhya is definitely not happy with Aparajita didi being in the same house. There is a lot of resentment that she is carrying towards her sister. For Aradhya, her wedding was supposed to be the biggest and most important day of her life, but Aparajita didi getting married on the same day completely stole her thunder.”
According to Aishwarya, Aradhya feels that the situation became even more difficult after she entered the Bharadwaj household. “After entering the Bharadwaj house, because of Aparajita didi and the situations surrounding her, Aradhya had to face her mother-in-law’s anger, and a lot of her functions and important moments were affected. She had worked so hard to regain her saasuma’s love, respect and her position in the family, and now she feels that her sister’s presence is once again threatening that space,” she shares.
The actor also points out that Aradhya has always believed that her sister interferes in her life. “Aradhya has always felt that Aparajita interferes in her matters and tries to take charge of her life. So for her, having her sister in the same house is almost like the same story repeating itself.”
For Aradhya, marriage was supposed to be a chance to finally move away from the comparisons she had faced all her life. Aishwarya explains, “Somewhere, Aradhya wanted her marriage to be an escape from all those comparisons and from the feeling of constantly being in her sister’s shadow. She wanted to start a peaceful life with Vivaan and create an identity of her own. But now she feels that even in her sasural, she is again being overshadowed by her sister.”
This has naturally brought out feelings of irritation, jealousy and competition in Aradhya. However, Aishwarya believes there is a deeper emotion behind all of it. “There is definitely irritation, resentment and jealousy. But underneath all of that is a very simple emotion. Aradhya wants to have her own place, her own importance and her own identity,” she says.
With both sisters now part of the same family, Aradhya is also determined to regain her standing in the Bharadwaj household. “Aradhya is trying every possible way to win back her saasuma’s respect and affection and regain her position in the family. She has worked very hard to establish herself as the chhoti bahu of this house, and she doesn’t want to lose that position,” says Aishwarya.
For Aishwarya, this track has also allowed her to explore a more vulnerable side of Aradhya. “Aradhya’s biggest vulnerability is that she has always been the neglected child in her family. There was always more focus on her elder sister, and that created a constant pressure within her to prove herself, to be as good as her sister or even better than her.”
The actor believes that understanding this emotional history is important to understanding Aradhya’s actions. “Her mindset became, ‘If I don’t think about myself, nobody else will.’ That pressure also made her rebellious. She decided that she didn’t want to be the nice girl of the family. If everyone expected her to behave a certain way or become like her sister, she chose to be the badass, the rebel, the person who would make her own choices.”
Aishwarya feels that while Aradhya’s actions cannot always be justified, her past helps explain where they come from. “She has a motive. She has a history. She has a wound. That doesn’t justify everything she does, but it explains why she reacts the way she does.”
For the actor, that emotional conflict is what makes Aradhya more than just a negative character. “Underneath all her selfishness, jealousy and rebelliousness is a girl who has spent her whole life feeling like she is second to her sister, and now she is terrified that the same thing will happen in her married life.”
