Of fan girl moments and fun in Bollywood

For Pearle Maaney, it was much bigger than even her wildest dream. How many Mollywood actors can boast of launching their innings in Bollywood opposite none other than Abhishek Bachchan, and that too in a film directed by the talented Anurag Basu, with co-stars like Aditya Roy Kapur, Pankaj Tripathi, Rajkummar Rao, Sanya Malhotra, Sana Shaikh Fatima and Rohit Sharath? Pearle can raise her hands. She has already completed four schedules of her Hindi debut with two more pending schedules and has been shooting since March. Known as a lovable brat and a prankster armed with the gift of the gab, Pearle did not see any need to change her personality for any industry and proudly proclaims, “I created the same alambu (mischief) there that I do in Kerala!”

Those curious to know about her role will need to wait longer since she is not at liberty to reveal any details. In fact, the news of the cast was let out only recently. Though her character is shrouded in mystery, she is more than willing to talk of her experience on the sets, especially about her co-stars. She gushes while talking about Abhishek Bachchan. “I had a fan moment every time he walked into the sets. I would immediately stand up and then pull my chair as close to his as possible, but always sitting behind him and never facing him. Abhishek noticed my star-struck behavior and soon we started talking. He is so friendly, funny and down to earth. Add to that dedicated and very patient with his co-stars. Once, he came to the sets carrying with him a huge, blue-coloured cake sent by Ash from home.” She reveals that Abhishek calls her Chachi. “Maybe he means chechi,” she naughtily says.

Anurag’s style of working has left her completely speechless considering that he is also the DOP of the film. She calls him Dada and states that he is a completely relaxed and very friendly person though he is strict about work. “He gives utmost care to character detailing and knows exactly what he wants, and gets it too. His wife is always present on the sets and she is such a sweetheart!” she adds.

Though Pearle has not started shooting with Sana as yet, she had a blast bonding with Sanya while shooting together. “We both have curly hair, so we would be discussing hair care products and taking boomerang shots.” She talks about Sacred Games fame Pankaj as someone she used to watch on the OTT platform and was hence a fan of. “He used to shower unlimited compliments on me,” she mentions. Yes, she did face a language problem and reveals, “Initially, I used to get teased mercilessly for my Hindi, but that only made my resolve stronger to study the language harder!”

 Before signing off, Pearle quips, “The initial days were fan days for me, but soon the focus was on my character.” The film is slated to release only by February 2020.