Meet the khansama from ‘Killer Soup’

Meet Vaishali Bisht, Hyderadabad-based khansama from ‘Killer Soup’

Killer Soup, a Hindi crime comedy series streaming on Netflix also stars Hyderabad-based theatre actor and director Vaishali Bisht in a prominent role. A well-known theatre personality in Hyderabad — having acted in, written, directed and produced plays and conducted workshops — Vaishali plays the role of Mehrunnisa, an old Dakhni-speaking khansama (cook) who runs a cooking school. 

Since her return to Hyderabad in 1996 after she graduated in Theatre and Drama Studies (Hons.), from the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, Vaishali has been working extensively with children and adults through theatre workshops in the city. She is one of the three co-founders of the Hyderabad Children’s Theatre Festival.

Vaishali says her colleagues and fellow theatre artistes recommended her name to casting director Pooja Hegde, of Casting Coo, a Bengaluru-based casting company. Pooja is also a director and producer.  Vaishali says, “When Pooja contacted me for a self audition, I did it because I aware of her work in the field. The process started during the lockdown, so everything was online. After my self audition, I was sent a scene excerpt of the character for which I auditioned; that is when I came to know of the character I had auditioned for. It was challenging because I am not at all fluent in Dakhni.”   

She got a lot of help with her Dakhni diction from fellow theatre actors and friends; the cast members, from Nasser to Konkona Sen Sharma, were extremely supportive. Incidentally, the Hindi series has a smattering of Tamil too. For the role of the khansama, Vaishali had to transform physically too as Mehrunnisa has a bent back. She explains, “Body language was not an issue at all. Once my diction was in place, I was good to go. I enjoyed the work especially because we were working when the COVID restrictions were not lifted completely. After being cooped up at home during the lockdown, it was a wonderful opportunity to work with something new and different,” she adds. 

“I always chose not to work with TV and movies because of the different process from theatre. I had a minimal performance with the camera earlier and I didn’t enjoy it. So, I restricted myself to theatre. After working with the Killer Soup team and Abhishek Chaubey I enjoyed the environment and the camaraderie with my co-actors.” 

Killer Soup is streaming on Netflix