Naina Sareen on Raakh, Pritam and Pedro, and the long road to screen success

Naina Sareen is having a good fortnight. Two OTT releases within 10 days of each other — Amazon Prime Video’s Raakh and Rajkumar Hirani Films’ Pritam and Pedro— and both are trending.

Balancing raw trauma and light-hearted comedy, the rising performer reflects on craft and carving space in a crowded streaming landscape

“It was a total coincidence,” Naina laughs, recalling the timing of the releases. “I had no idea they’d come out so close!” But what’s not coincidental is her knack for embracing diverse roles.

In Raakh, Prosit Roy’s drama built around the infamous 1978 Ranga-Billa case, Naina plays Deena—a Parsi woman whose encounter with violence becomes one of the series’ most emotionally raw threads. Talking about the preparation for the role, Naina says, “For me, preparation always begins with understanding the emotional life of the character rather than trying to perform. I spent time asking who she was before the story began, what she carried within, what she feared and what she longed for.” Dialect training followed. “Preparing for it wasn’t about trying to imagine the violence but understanding the emotional and psychological impact on the character.”

Cut to Pritam and Pedro, where she shines as Sherlyn, a bubbly cyber crime officer opposite Arshad Warsi. She inhabits a character built on warmth, optimism, and comic timing, “I’ve always wanted to explore comedy, like Sridevi or Juhi Chawla did,” she adds.

When asked about working with Rajkumar Hirani, she says it was a treat and that he even noticed her singing on set and appreciated her FTII training. He heard me sing on the first day of the shoot, and said, ‘You’re a trained actor—I can see it.” For Naina, the moment landed differently than most praise might. “We have a shared film school language. Coming from him is unbelievable and humbling at the same time.”

However her route to this point was anything but straightforward. She grew up in Bokaro, Jharkhand, where acting was “like a forbidden love— you can’t say it out loud.” An IT job in Bengaluru, a quietly purchased FTII entrance form, 60 auditions after graduating before her first paid work. Her father assumed she’d return to IT. But then in a couple of years, he realised that this is what she’s going to be doing. And now he’s extremely happy, she says.

What’s next for Naina? A slate of independent films— Laali, Taasme, Dry Wounds Catch Fire—and a psychological romantic thriller she is co-creating from real events in her own life.

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