Mumbai: Looking positively stunning in every frame of her recently-released Finding Fanny, Deepika Padukone is soaking in all the attention that she’s been getting since the film’s first screening. The actress admits that when she heard the script a few years ago on the sets of Cocktail, she was hooked to it from the first frame (which unfortunately got chopped later) but wasn’t very convinced of the film being a box-office success.
The response therefore is a tad confusing, but pleasantly so, she says. “I initially thought that it would be a very niche film and would only be sent to film festivals. But the recent screenings have proved that people are not treating it any differently. I had invited Bachchan sir for a screening and he very sweetly accepted the invitation. After the film, he gave Arjun and me a pat on our backs and said that he’d love to do a film like this; that there’s a lot he can learn from us. It was an incredibly sweet thing to say,” she gushes adding, “Even Hrithik told me that it’s the kind of film in which the viewer unravels a new layer of the character every time he or she watches it.”
As past of the film’s post-production commitments, Deepika has been making rounds of live shows and events to promote the film. She tells us that it could be a little overwhelming at some point. “For a film like Happy New Year, one need not go all out to promote it. But for a Finding Fanny, one had to do that extra bit because the film looks different,” she says admitting that meeting people outside of the film sets is not her most favourite part of the job.
“Actors in general are the least confident people. People think we are social, but most actors including me, are under-confident. I am socially awkward when I have to attend parties. I’m getting better, but I’m still not as confident as I would like to be. Besides, I know I will lose stardom some day — it’s the reality of life. I’m secure and don’t expect to be in spotlight all my life. People who think that are delusional. My sister Anisha is my biggest critic. She did not like Ram Leela because I die in the end. She has a nice knack of putting her point of view across.”
We ask the actress on her reactions to Priyanka’s Chopra’s Mary Kom that released a week before her film. Would she take up a woman-centric film like that? Sure, she says, as long as one doesn't use the term “woman-centric”. “I hate that word. It depends on the film. Mary Kom is a woman so obviously Arjun Kapoor can’t play Mary Kom. If I get offered a central character like that and I like the film, I will do it too. Recently Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine released was a about the journey of a woman, but nobody called it woman-centric. We should watch films for what they are. Why categorise?
Apart from Finding Fanny, Dippy has also been working with Farah Khan on Happy New Year. So what was it like to get back with the director who gave her her debut film? “Farah trusted me a lot more this time because I’m working with her after seven years. When we shot Om Shanti Om, I was new to this world and had never been on a film set. She guided me and took me through everything from costume to hair and makeup and dialogue delivery. After seven years she realises that I’ve understood my craft better and am confident as a person. What has not changed is how protective she is about me and even more this time as I was the only girl among five male co-stars. She would ask me ‘Baby have you eaten khana? Have you slept well?’ I’m always her baby.”
Does she feel the same way about working with Homi? “Homi is my number 1 director without a doubt, because he discovered something in me at a time when nobody else did, in Cocktail. Homi and my sensibilities are similar, whether it’s the kind of stories we like to tell or our rapport as actor-director. Most importantly it’s trust. If he tells me to jump off a building, I’ll do it because I completely trust him. That equation has to be pure.”
But it’s not just the directors that who hold a special place in Dippy’s heart. Dimple Kapadia is one of her favourite co-stars she tells us. “She is one of my most favourite people. We connected at an emotional level during Cocktail. She suddenly took a liking for me and decided to take me shopping. I was doing up my new house at that time. She loves interiors and her daughter (Twinkle) is in the business. She had a day off, so she checked out some carpets and paintings and came back to sets saying ‘Baby I have found these shops, let me know when you were ready’. In half an hour we were down, she took me to all shops and paid for everything before taking me out for lunch, where she asked me my entire life history and I asked about hers. We connected beautifully as women.”
Coming to love Deepika insists she hasn't found the perfect man as yet. “I can’t help myself forget helping anybody else find love but it is the most beautiful feeling in the world."
