Girls Hostel 3.0 Exclusive! Srishti Srivastava: I had to find Amitabh Bachchan's 'angry young man' to bring Jo alive

Srishti Srivastava, who became popular with her role as Jo in Girls Hostel, is coming back with season 3. She has now revealed that she took inspiration from Amitabh Bachchan, who has been called Angry Young Man for the longest time. She referred to his movies to get into the character of Jo.

Srishti, last seen in Maja Ma, also spoke about revealed what the new season will bring. She adds what she has in the pipeline and also spills where Jo’s journey will go.

Excerpts from the interview…

Coming back to Girls Hostel 3 after Maja Ma, what does it feel like?

I actually don't know. You always want to reach this moment in life where you receive a lot of love for your work and the projects release back-to-back. When you reach it though, you don't know what to do with it. It's good, yaar. When I look back at my time, it feels good. There's something right that I've done. That's what I feel like.

What was it like, getting into the character of Jo again?

Every time we start with a new season, it is so tough because there's a time that has passed. It's been a year since we shot season 2. To get back into the shoes of the character, understand how she spoke, the mannerisms she had - everything takes two days to understand again. As Srishti too, I have grown up. So, I keep forgetting what is needed. It takes two days for me to get back in the character - to understand her voice and process. It's very exciting. We've tried to find more layers and sides to every character. This season, Jo is in a completely new dilemma. It wasn't that as much. What she does with that - her decision-making - is very dramatic, drastic and lots of fun.

How much like Jo are you in real life?

Far away from it. Jo is not a people-pleaser. I want to make everyone happy around me. There are some days where I want people to get lost. I want to be like her sometimes. When I'm alone and with myself, then I'm somewhat like her. I stop caring about the world and do my thing. There's the little similarity but otherwise, we're not alike at all.

Would you say the COVID situation - being pushed into a corner - helped you relate to Jo? Since she's also an almost no-fucks-given kind of a person...

Not really. It wasn't about the lockdown. We tried to crack Jo in the first season itself. I had an instant liking towards that character. I fell in love with her. Doing that, she created her own world. I used to love finding new things about Jo. Lockdown didn't help me but the thought of wanting to somewhere be like Jo definitely did. I wish I could tell people that I don't care about them. What I wish I could do, Jo does. That attracts me to her a lot. That is how Jo developed. I want to be like her a little. That's how we've created Jo over a period of time.

Jo is the tomboy, kind of don of the girls hostel. What did it take to prep into the role?

I was looking at Nawazuddin Siddiqui's interview where he said that if you portray 1000 characters, they are already a part of you. I have seen the Jo inside me. I'm very aware of her inside me. The people I call my own, I can be like Jo with them. Jo comes out when I'm in my comfort zone and with people who I know will never leave me no matter what. I found Jo from there.

When I went for the reading for Girls Hostel, I refused to play someone who fights and is loud. I then realized that it isn't Jo. She is very happy in her own being and does what she wants to do. I was referring to Mr. Bachchan who is called the angry young man but he never screamed for people to give him that tag. He would only talk and be able to convince people. My aim was to find that in Jo. She's probably an angry young woman. I saw Mr. Bachchan's work. It was never in-your-face anger. It was just there in his being. That was the work required for Jo.

What makes Girls Hostel 3 a worthy watch, according to you? What do the viewers have to look forward to?

Season 1 was about smaller topics. There was bra chor in the first episode. With the second season, we went deeper into the relationships, argument, love, hate and drama. With third season, we're bringing juniors into the girls hostel. They come from a world which we belong to - which is a world of influencers and those who talk about the LGBTQIA+ community. One character is from the community. In the third season, we're suddenly faced with reality of the world - where there are influencers and people from the community. There's extreme amount of drama happening. It could be personal battles between students or management. There are 100 things happening in season 3. It could be talking about community, relationships and questioning the system and society altogether.

Will Jo's sexuality also be explored in this season? That would make an interesting watch...

There's something interesting happening in this season. It isn't fully explored and that's nice because there's a mystery. There's some sort of light put to her sexuality in this season for sure.

What's next for you?

I'm so excited for this project but can't share it. I shot for it this year only and hopefully, it will be out next year. It is very exciting, different from what I've done and I'm really looking forward to that.

Is this a web series or film? Also, is it with another A-lister?

It's a film bro. I wouldn't be able to reveal more than that at this point.