Radhika Apte plays agoraphobic in her next

In her next film Phobia, Radhika Apte plays a woman suffering from agoraphobia — a fear of public spaces. Fortunately or unfortunately for Radhika, she has a close friend who suffers from the same. “One of my two close friends suffers from agoraphobia, so I had done a lot of research on this. Pawan approaching me for the film was serendipitous! It was not easy to play this role at all. We shot for 28 days and it was very challenging — physically and emotionally.”

Does she suffer from any phobia herself “I don’t suffer from any phobia. I have a fear of a particular kind though, I cannot swim on a rooftop swimming pool or in a swimming pool at a height.”

Director Pawan Kripalani stumbled upon the idea when he met a friend’s friend. “I always wanted to make a film on this subject and happened to know a friend’s friend who suffers from the condition. An incident that happened two years ago has made her the person she is, but my film is not based on that, it is generally based on the disorder. She rarely steps out of the house because of it, so we went to her house to meet her. Radhika couldn’t meet her because she made it very clear that she wouldn’t see anyone else. But Radhika has done her own research too. Also, her parents are neurologists so she took help from them.”