Now that’s what you term as a real naughty affair! It is the time of leading ladies to take the centre-stage and while Bipasha Basu chose horror (Raaz 3), Kareena Kapoor opted for drama (Heroine), Sridevi believed in making everyone moist eyed (English Vinglish), Manisha Koirala is getting all scared (Bhoot Returns) and Preity Zinta is in mood to get mushy (Ishkq In Paris), Rani Mukerji is ensuring that being sexy comes across as rather cute-n-naughty. Her ‘Aiyyaa‘ is in news, and how!
Rani, audience hasn’t seen this side of yours ever and trust me, it’s working big time.
(Smiles) Well, when Anurag Kashyap came to me with this film, the story was of just one line. It said that ‘yeh ek aisi ladki ki kahaani hai jo ek aadmi ki khushboo se attract hoti hai’. That’s it. I felt that this characterisation had a lot of potential and I would have fun doing it. Anurag told me that if I liked this one line, he would ask the director to return with a narration of full two hours film. Of course it was a go ahead for me.
That was during the time when you were shooting for ‘No One Killed Jessica’. It must have been a blessing in disguise for you to work in something as light-hearted as this, isn’t it?
Yes, however the start wasn’t immediate and I did take some time before locking my dates and all. I wanted to be sure if we were going in the right direction beyond the one line story. After I and director Sachin Kundalkar met, he further worked on the script for one year before getting the draft in place. It was only after that when I eventually confirmed doing the film. (Smiles) In fact Sachin was pleasantly surprised when I gave him dates just 20 days after he had read the final script to me.
Sachin Kundalkar is someone who is making a Hindi film for the first time. Did you have to guide him right through the making of the film?
See, I have always behaved like a team player. Yes, I do contribute but then people who are working on a film are also talented and know their job well. So, I didn’t have to tell anyone what to do. Of course, there was some good experience that I brought with me and that had to be utilised. However eventually it all turned out to be a team effort. Poori picture hans-khel kar ban gayi.
Guess Prithviraj joined you in all this fun and frolic as well. He seems to be thoroughly enjoying his stint as your ‘dream man’!
(Laughs) According to Prithvi, he has been a fan of mine for years and stays on to be so. On the contrary I didn’t know much about him though when I saw his video on the internet, I was amazed to see that he is such a big star out there in Malayalam films and quite a heart throb. Now that I have worked with him, I know for sure that why he is on the top. He deserves that since he is such a good actor. In fact he is one of the finest that I have worked with.
