Lust Stories cannot seem to do without Radhika Apte. Across its three seasons, the anthology has featured some of Hindi cinema’s most famous names, from Vicky Kaushal to Kiara Advani.
But when you think of Lust Stories, Apte comes to mind almost instinctively. After all, she has been a constant presence in the show. But this dependence isn’t because Apte is the best actor on the block or irreplaceable. It’s because she hits a very particular sweet spot.
She looks like someone you know. Apte is brown-skinned and sharp-featured, but she does not fit the familiar Bollywood idea of beauty. She is relatable; her presence does not feel like a movie star cast to represent a middle-class woman.
Lust Stories have always been about women articulating wants. And Apte’s presence gives that desire an Indian texture. I would say there is a desiness in her sexiness. It isn’t manufactured through Bollywood’s cookie-cutter factory. She can be sensual without looking polished. That is exactly why so many Indian women can see a little bit of themselves in her. Indian cinema has spent decades teaching audiences that desirability has a particular look.
Fair skin, conventional features, a certain body type. Actors who fall outside that template have often had to compensate by being “character actors.” Apte, through OTT, has carved a space between the two.
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Beauty with brains
In the first part, Apte played Kalindi, a college professor whose sexual curiosity and frustration become the centre of the story. Kalindi is blunt, awkward and unapologetically honest about her desires, but she is also conflicted by the emotional mess that comes with them.
The actress skipped the second part, and well, you can say that maybe that’s why it is not quite remembered. Apte finally returned in the third season, where she plays a wife struggling to get affection from her husband.
Even if you look at her other filmography, from Lajjo in Parched, Anjali Mathur in Sacred Games, to Sapna in Shor In The City, Apte has revealed that she picks roles she finds hard to relate to on paper, because those end up being “the kinds of characters I see around me”, real women, not archetypes built for the male gaze or the family-drama template.
Then there’s the persona off-screen, which does almost as much work as the filmography. When a leaked intimate scene from Parched became tabloid fodder, she didn’t apologise or get embarrassed; she said, “I am not ashamed of anything”.
When asked about being called “overweight” and losing work over it, or being advised early on to get cosmetic surgery, she talked about it without the usual PR. She has been candid about #MeToo, about gender expectations at home, about rejecting the industry’s obsession with conventional beauty.
Apte, both on camera and off camera, talks about bold, flawed, curious and unapologetic women. She is a perfect example of ‘Indian beauty with brains’, and thankfully, both Netflix and Lust Stories understand that.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)