By IndiaFM News Bureau

We hear you

are playing a negative role in Dhoom 2, what was it like and what was

the rationale behind taking on this role with negative shades.

Firstly all the talk on a lot of aspects of Dhoom and my character

in the film. I guess assumptions are fine, because it definitely keeps

the curiosity picking and the audience out there wondering, how much

truth there is to it, so I am wondering whether at this point in time I

should shed more light or let the audience go discover for themselves

in the theatres. Speculation has been aplenty right from the time we

starting filming, so it’s all a lot of assumptions. Slating or slotting

the characters already I don’t think should be done, because I will not

define my character as negative or positive for that matter because

she’s a live wire in the film and with a character that’s just

typically her, when you discover Sunehri you will find that she’s just

a singular individual, it will take you a while to even figure her out

and that was the idea in the way we agreed that I perform her, where

you will not be able to slot her, she completely throws you. It was

definitely exciting for me to discover and deliver Sunehri simply

because in a given scene, while having relatively regular pieces of

conversation within that its layered, in a single moment she’s striking

a conversation, in a single moment she exudes excitement, almost hero

worship to Mr A, in the next second she’s turning on an attitude and

challenging him, almost reckoning to be an equal, so in that sense,

just like Mr A takes the audience a while to figure out, so does

Sunehri. So thereby when I say performing Sunehri was defined in my

mind, this is what I mean by etching her out, that there were so many

little little aspects that it felt very important in creating her in

terms of content apart from of course the visual impact and that is

something all the characters we all definitely focused on, as something

we brought to the table as a team from director down to the

stylist.

Did you do your stunts yourself? What was it like?

A couple of them, as would go with an action film and with safety

first being the mantra always in every film set and that isn’t anything

new, its common knowledge, within the film fraternity as well as the

audience. But nevertheless a lot of the work was something that we as a

team of actors and technicians did push ourselves for, to experience

the adrenaline rush first person because that’s what makes it super

exciting in terms of what you deliver and also in terms of what the

audience gets to actually experience on screen when they see the

artist/ actor in person, pushing themselves beyond the norm. The high

point probably was actually at Orabi Gorge, where we had the jump,

there’s this one moment where Hrithik’s character Aryan challenges

Sunehri, (that’s me) in the film to jump, given the premise of the

scene which when you see you will enjoy it, and she takes a beat and

goes for it and so does he and you see a glimpse of that in the promos.

That was a trip, it was an absolute high, and never in my life have I

experienced just literally jumping off the edge, I had to actually do

that, of course they looked after our safety, and there is a bungee

that we are connected to in person as well, even in the moment on

screen, but to actually do this literally just jumping straight foot

first like off a diving board, was fantastic. Even when you are

actually hauled up, just after a take, when you’ve spent it out there,

it was, quite a moment for both Hrithik and me, because just next us,

there was a trickle of a waterfall so we were actually seeing the water

drops just literally going down in reality what visually we refer to as

slow motion, literally the drops were going down forever.

This is your first film with Hrithik and Bipasha, how was the

experience of working with them?

Superlative, I mean it really has been fantastic, fun just like the

rest of the team, be it Abhishek, Uday, I think the fact that the 3 of

them have known each other since childhood, they constantly share their

anecdotes which just make you feel that you belong to those bunch of

kids who went to those Birthday parties, or hung out in their schooling

years, you just felt that you were part of the inner circle, because it

was so wonderful to see them spontaneously and at the most unexpected

moments, have a recollection and relive it, made you feel you were

there as well and the brief moments that I got to share with Bipasha, I

must say she’s a real cool girl, and I am glad we are a team on this

film, all of us, because the camaraderie was genuine, the spirit was

fab and the energy was about being team players, and that’s something

that everybody brought to the table very professionally while on the

job and aside it just kept the energy what it should be, on a film like

this, very naturally. So we had a blast while making the film, solely

zeroing on my specific co-star for the film, that is my pair that’s

Hrithik, like he himself was saying that its great that he also had

eased up a lot and he says that generally, not just from this film, we

had a world tour and a commercial together and I guess both of us had

been psyched by perception about being extremely professional, being

very detailed, almost obsessive about our work, each of us had been

told that about the other, but when we have worked together, I can

safely say that, I think that’s a given. In any committed passionate

professional would be that detailed for what they bring to the job, and

I relate to that, so I don’t think there’s any need to make much ado

about it. It’s fairly natural to work that hard or be that much of a

perfectionist on the job.

What do you think of the music of Dhoom 2 as compared to Dhoom?

I would never make comparisons, because the fact is that Dhoom was a

super success and it was a signature tune at that point in time, in

every club, car, bikes, a raging success, and I am glad that Dhoom 2

was received with equal if not more responsive. It has been superlative

again and very very positive, and I think it was very clever, to have

the first promo go on air with KANK, it was very gratifying for the

whole team to have received such a tremendous response, where the

audience was already in Dhoom 2 while watching the movie! This is

something we heard in first person, we all received it on text and as a

team we were overjoyed. It was very very good to know that people were

so looking forward to this film, with so much anticipation, we’ve had a

blast making it, so we can’t wait to share it with our audiences.

Did you watch Dhoom and what did you think of the film?

It’s evident that because at that point it was definitely a cluster

breaker. The identity is youth but I take it as just going by the

success, they become family experiences that kids enjoy, parents go the

entire family goes and they just have a good time, and you come away

with an adrenaline rush. I sincerely believe that age is a state of the

mind, even 20 years later I will say this. And everybody has been there

done that or has aspired to be there do that and have all these

experiences in person, if not, cinema is the perfect dream world, the

closest thing to experiencing any moment in person. So it was good to

know that Dhoom was well embraced, so when approached with the idea of

Dhoom 2 touted as a sequel, but I always call it yet it is a brilliant

idea, and Adi knew what he was doing when he came up with this idea,

going by the response. We were very very happy to be on team, its

really funny, how 20,000 ideas fly around within the team of course,

about the next Dhoom and the next Dhoom, and the next Dhoom, so it

obviously a very clever franchise. At the end of the day it’s a fab

experience for the team as well as for the audiences. It’s like college

will always be an experience everybody cherishes and the pulse and pace

of this movie, is one that is universally enjoyed.

You have so many releases coming up, what makes Dhoom 2 special?

It’s definitely a first in my career and it’s interesting it’s

happened in the 10th year of my film career. Of course that’s by

choice, its not a moment if I may say so, a moment I have been waiting

for to happen to me, in the sense that there have been offers to do

roles in the western mode but I have been very choosy, very evident in

the choice of films that I have done and made so far. This was a tough

offer to resist, because I thought it was perfect, if this was what I

wanted to bring on board, this was the perfect premise to do so. So in

terms of playing an out and out westernized character, so obviously

youth oriented and trendsetting, so obviously fashionable and fun, but

at the same time racy, evidently hot and super cool, this was the

perfect premise to do so, so yes I chose to project the way I never

have before on this film, because I felt it seemed so natural and at

ease and it went with the language of the film. If you do find Sunehri

sexy at every given point, Sunehri just is, she isn’t someone who is

working to turn it on in every frame, unless she needs to as a

character, while interacting with another character. So I thought it

was great where, wearing shorts or short skirts, dressing a certain way

was just natural to the character, it wasn’t about trying to work it on

celluloid. I don’t need to resort to tactics, to get attention, thank

you very much, I have more than my fair share of it even in my saris!

It’s not something I needed to explore for the sake of the apparent, it

was a definite character created, and it’s just the language of the

entire film and of all the characters. We have shot in Rio, where it

was only natural to be dressed a certain way, we have shot in South

Africa, yes also in Mumbai, but while interacting with the characters

it’s all a natural progression of the celluloid theme. Hence the

comfort level.

What was the best moment during the course of shooting the film?

The film as a whole, but like I say apart from the part of the

absolute thrill of working on celluloid, I must confess, I thoroughly

enjoyed the team, I enjoyed the gang, off-screen as well, because like

I just shared with you earlier, that it was so nice that everybody was

just being, it was the whole team. There were a lot of laughs, a lot of

fun. There has been a lot of talk about the fitness regime, something

that I only explored very honestly for a month to 5 weeks before we

started the film, then it has only been my schedules throughout the

last year, my different films I ‘ve been working on, I didn’t get a

chance really focus on the fitness. So for all the talk in the media,

this is the truth, it was just 4-5 weeks last year before we started.

Then after making Guru, both Abhishek and me had to put on weight for

Mani’s film, so we resumed the schedule, I suggested we take Deepika (

the fitness instructor) with us because we were doing the action part

of the film, and whatever little bit we could do, which was barely 2

weeks, while filming, but the fun part was that everybody would be in

the gym, I mean everybody not just the actors. And it was fun because

while we would all try to get into a bit of a routine, I think we were

just having so much fun hanging around, that we’d be just about that

sincere and then the next plan to go out to dinner, which we would all

do very happily and try and hold on to the myths that if I gorge now it

will show 20 days later, so that we are on safe turf, it was like a

college /road trip, I’d say this film, where while we were working in

all sincerity but it was all so much fun, on set and after hours. I

think that is by far the best memory the best is everything about D2 is

fabulous while making it, but I think we’ve come away being really good

friends, time and tide will be able to define the strength of the

friendship but nevertheless it definitely went beyond being co-stars,

and its something that I really cherish and hold dear to my heart.

How did you enjoy shooting on location in South Africa and a message

for your fans there?

South Africa incidentally has a home turf kind of significance in my

life, because yes, I did win my title in Sun City of Johannesburg, and

I have been there a couple of times, not that often, but a couple of

times, my work took me back there, to Cape Town to film Dil Ka Rishta

extensively which was again a family experience, so my memories are

very very warm, and people have been extremely loving and its something

that a lot of my film fraternity really cherish and enjoy with the

people of South Africa. Even the year I was giving up the title, when

Amitji was on board the panel of the jury, at the pageant, it was

overwhelming to see the strength with which our people had descended to

Sun City and the applause that he was rendered just took the entire

pageant’s breath away because it was so good to see, and such an

awakening to the rest of the world to recognize, how passionate our

people are about our cinema, and the members of our film fraternity,

and the love that they are so generous with. Hence I personally share a

very warm bond with our audience out there and I can just extend a

heartfelt thank you, for their love and blessings and good wishes all

through my career and it was great fun now coming back there and

shooting for Dhoom 2, a fun experience for us and again with a lot of

very fond memories, I am glad that every time I have come there and

worked or filmed, or participated in a pageant, I have come away with

super success and a lot of love and great memories, so I guess that’s a

good sign.

Did you do any kind of special preparation for this role?

Like I said one was the visual was very imperative, as a pre-

requisite, its something we as a team agreed we definitely would work

on, as I do work on every film, here it zeroed in on the physical

appearance in terms of fitness, and it was a body language and a body

type that I hadn’t brought to celluloid before, and since I was going

to dress a certain way, I needed to just be the person who wore those

clothes, very naturally and not because it was an element of worked on

excitement, I am glad that it has turned out exciting, that wasn’t the

reason for the costume. People who have well toned bodies as we look

around, naturally dress a certain way, when you’ve really worked on

your midriff you see that they are happy to wear shorter tops, when you

have worked on your legs, they naturally wear short skirts, not because

they need to show their legs but they feel natural and comfortable in

it. So that was a body type that I was determined to work on, and I was

very glad to discover that the first time in my life that I have got

down to working out, my body responds very quickly and its very

reassuring to know that, so with a little bit of focused time and work

it was good to know that we can achieve it, and bring that on board. In

terms of the styling, working with Anaita, whom I worked with several

times in my career specially in my modeling world, or in the fashion

magazine assignments, we’ve worked many times before, so she knows me,

my body type, my aesthetics, my comfort, and so we worked on it

together very easily and she’s done a fantastic job, because that’s

what again people right from on the set and now the audience have begun

to identify. The clothing feels like me, it feels natural even if it

means seeing me for the first time in the western mould. It doesn’t

seem uncomfortable, it doesn’t seem unnatural, and that’s something

Anaita knows about me, so we worked on it together and arrived at

Sunehri. We decided that we would go with a different hand in terms of

makeup and hair styling because that again would bring a newness to

board, so I worked with Subbu who also I have known from my

advertising, and modeling experience, though this was the first film we

were working on together. So we did one day of a look shoot as in a

test with my dear friend Farooque and once we arrived at Sunehri, there

she was bang on ready to go on set. Obviously the final verdict is the

nod from Adi, it was fun to arrive at her in terms of the visual. In

terms of preparation to characterization, we were clear again as a team

as I said before that we would create a character, while we knew that

the visual would be the initial head turner, we needed to create

someone who would be, specifically a character from this franchise.

Also it has worked out really well, fortunately or coincidentally that

currently I am having so many different releases, Umrao Jaan, Dhoom 2

and Guru, and ahead there’s Provoked and Last Legion, it’s great that

not only visually we have arrived at a specific character, but also in

terms of her mannerisms her personality is very very specific and can

be identified as someone who belongs solely to this film.

What next? Can we expect to see you doing some more action films in

the international front?

Well I started in fact just pre Dhoom 2 I made Last Legion, which

was definitely action not contemporary though and I experienced sword

fighting and I am a warrior in that film, so I completed that movie

before I started Dhoom, so that would technically be my first

experience in the action genre, but it wasn’t in the contemporary

times, so I am glad that within the year, between last year and now, I

have actually got through and tasted action spectrum in Roman times and

contemporary biker times and its been a lot of fun, its been a huge

adrenaline rush, exactly what I was looking forward to and like I tease

I have tasted blood, I can’t wait to have more such experiences because

they are really fulfilling and it’s a rush that can’t be explained, but

it’s a definite high, that’s the most fantastic part of our job,

because we get to experience which probably people just think or dream

about, and irrespective of what point in time of your life, to what

space you are physically in, where you are, it could from the

ridiculous to the superlative in excitement, but the fact is we get to

experience life through our film making and I think that’s a

blessing.

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