Richa Moorjani on playing a cop in ‘Fargo 5’

Richa Moorjani, who shot to fame after playing the role of Kamala in Mindy Kaling’s global hit series Never Have I Ever, surprised audiences with a completely different character in her next project.

She essays the role of Indira Olmstead, a cop in the new season of the Golden Globe-winning anthology series Forgo. Those who have seen the latest installment of the series would agree that Moorjani is hardly recognisable as Officer Indira Olmstead who finds herself in the middle of a kidnapping case unlike any other in her small Minnesota town.

The actress told a publication that she thought it was a mistake when she received a call to audition for the part of a cop. “It was during the shooting of the last season of Never Have I Ever that Poorna Jagannathan auditioned for the role because the Fargo character was specifically written for a South Asian actor. When the offer came to me, I was in disbelief but both Poorna and my agent encouraged me to take it on,” she said.

During the audition process, Moorjani had to recite page after page of dialogue in a thick Minnesota accent. It was a tough task for her because she had never heard anyone use a Minnesota accent in real life.

“When I was getting trained for the Minnesota dialect, I realised that it’s not just the way they speak but also the accent that informs their behaviour, the way they think and approach situations. I got to work with the dialect coach who had trained Frances McDormand for the film and all the seasons of the show since that’s how they maintain consistency,” she added.

The actress also said, “While Indira is the moral centre of the story, she is hanging on by a thread and then gets thrown into a chaotic situation. I want to continue doing projects like this that are different and show South Asians in a light in which they have never been seen before.”