“Irrespective Of Everything, I Would Still Consider Race 2 As A Successful Film” – Jacqueline Fernandez In Conversation With Koimoi

Race 2 is already racing towards the coveted 100 crore mark. How does that make you feel?
Fingers crossed, I just hope that this film crosses that mark soon. After all, Race 2 has got such a huge opening and then the weekend collections have been really good. Then the weekday collections are comparatively quite good. So I think it would not be difficult now for the film to cross the 100 crore mark. Irrespective of whatever happens, whatever numbers it crosses or not, irrespective of all that, I would still consider Race 2 as a successful film.

Race 2 is getting mixed reviews from the audience and the critics, something that wasn’t the case with Race. So did Race 2 match up to your expectations as an actress?
See, I loved the way I was presented, I loved the role that was given to me and I loved the way Abbas Mustan shot the film. I am also a little partial towards it because they have shown me in a light totally different from what I was shown in all my other films. Abbas and Mustan have done an extremely good job to kind of push it to the next level. Given the fact that Race 2 is more of an actor oriented thriller, all the actresses performed really well and they got noticed too. They have stylized it differently with a lot more glamour elements into it. So yes, I will always be partial towards Race 2 because this is something I am proud of being a part of!

The brilliant fencing sequence might have been the only action scene involving you in the film but then, you nailed it completely. Are you eyeing to claim the vacant action actress spot in Bollywood?
I love action. So this is obviously my baby step towards that genre and hopefully everyone will notice the bubbling action star in me too. The character of Omisha in the film demanded so much from me to do as an actor and I simply loved all the challenges that came my way. The training, the workouts, everything was so much fun. We had to take up and learn different forms of martial arts for this particular scene and I hope I get to play a true blue action star someday. Saif Ali Khan and I did a pretty hard working job to get all of it right with the fencing scene. I keep getting action roles, though and I love doing action.

People have loved you in the Lat Lagg Gayi song, but your fans wished you had John featuring in that song in place of Saif.
But I don’t know whether John would have been able to do all that dancing stuff. It is not that Saif is a very good dancer and he is better than John Abraham, which he admits he is not. But then John would not have been able to groove to the song. He is more of a hunk than a dancing star. And actually, I and John were supposed to do a song together, one that featured only the two of us, a solos song like Be Intehaan was always in the pipeline. But his dates are a little difficult to get and then it didn’t happen and there were a lot of problems too.

Towards the end, in the climax we see that the film ends on a note to start on a sequel to this too. So when is Race 3 happening?
I hope it happens soon. That was something we were just discussing at, sometime back. I would love to do Race 3 and the experience with this cast has been fantastic.

What is keeping you busy as of now then?
Well, I have a few films in hand but I am waiting for the announcements to be made before I can start talking about them. As of now, I just wish everyone loves Race 2 all the more and it becomes a huge success. But yes, having said that, all my next films would have me in different lights altogether, I can really promise on that!