~*Sushant's Bollywood Journey*~ #14 - Page 52

On this week's "The Front Row," Bollywood actors, Sushant Singh Rajput and Parineeti Chopra, speak to film critic Anupama Chopra about their new film "Shuddh Desi Romance," how they don't know how to be stars and what to do about becoming a brand in Bollywood. 

Edited excerpts:

Anupama Chopra: First of all, what exactly is a "Shuddh Desi Romance"? [Pure Indian Romance] The opposite of adulterated, Western romance?

Sushant Singh Rajput: It's something very new. Jaideep [Sahni the screenwriter] has done a fabulous job. I think we deliberately design our romantic films in a way that they are kind of escapist. But this is different. We are showing romance as it normally happens, in a very real space, so it's going to be special.

Parineeti Chopra: Every Bollywood film ends on the I love you.' It ends on the hero and heroine coming together and there's a happy wedding.  That's where our film starts from. Once the relationship starts and the boy and girl are now together, what are the everyday comedies that come about in that romance? This film talks about stuff that we don't normally speak [of] in our conservative Indian society and yet we're not being preachy or being brazen either. We're just saying let's talk about the things that we're always been afraid of speaking about. Maneesh [Sharma the director] always calls his film nonconformist' and it's true.  We've done nothing filmey in this film.

Anupama: From the trailers, "Shuddh Desi Romance" seems like a film rooted in a specific time and reality. When you play parts like these, which are close to your real lives in terms of age and plot situations, how much of yourself do you put into it? Do you improvise on set? Did the director Maneesh Sharma rework the characters to fit your personalities?

Mr. Rajput: You can relate to the character and his internal conflicts because we are talking something which is very real to us, so there are some similarities and much dissimilarity.  We accept everything that is similar and we alter everything that's dissimilar and that's our interpretation to it and that's how we play it.

Ms. Chopra: I, for one, had nothing in similar with my character Gayatri. I absolutely had to depend on what Maneesh was looking at and what Jaideep was writing. I knew there were a lot of girls like this that existed in reality.  However, I didn't know any one of them.  I don't understand the things that she does, or their relationship in the film. It's not something that I've seen in my personal life.  But that was the fun of it, when you're not yourself in the film.

Anupama: Sushant, Dibakar Banerjee said in an interview that the reason he cast you in "Detective Byomkesh Bakshy," is because you are one of the few stars who will also be an actor in the years to come.  Is it difficult to be a star actor in Bollywood? Are there too many pressures on you to just be a star?

Mr. Rajput: I can't talk about being a star because I don't understand it. I don't know how to be a star or behave like a star. But yes, acting-wise I genuinely think that there are certain psychological pre-conditions that are required for one to be an actor and I have most of them, like basic sensitivity to human emotions. Your ability to give into another way of thinking or the intellectual ability to understand the texts between the lines. All these things are required, so I can work on that and I can better myself as an actor, but then I don't know how to be a star so I can't aspire to be a star.

Anupama: Parineeti, do you know how to be a star?

Ms. Chopra: No, not at all.  I don't think I am one.  I believe a star is someone who can't walk on the road on his own.  I think Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan can't walk on roads because it's impossible for them.  I definitely want to be a star, because in India and in Bollywood, stardom actually means that more people love you, it's got nothing to do with more money or more power. That is the definition of being successful for me in Bollywood. Maybe it'll take at least ten years.  Till then I'll be an actor.

Anupama: Parineeti, when you were on the show earlier this year, you had said that, "We're in a time and age where we have become brands ourselves who are then used to sell other brands." Sushant, do you agree? Do you think of yourself as a brand?

Mr. Rajput: No, I don't think so.  I never think like that. I never choose my films with this thing in mind that I have to create a certain kind of brand. It's just the script, something in it that stimulates a certain degree of curiosity and then you want to do the film as an actor and you want to explore possibilities. That's the only reason I do films and that's the only reason why I want to be an actor.

Anupama: Parineeti, your journey to stardom has been pretty fantastical  " from working in the Yash Raj [Yash Chopra's entertainment company] marketing department to becoming a Yash Raj heroine. What do you think worked in your favor?

Ms. Chopra: Yes, it's surreal because I'm now part of promotions for my own films, which I used to do for other people's films.  I think it's all to do with destiny somehow. People are just there at the right time, at the right place, somebody spots them and something happens.  If I was still in London and the recession had never happened, acting wouldn't have happened. I came here and Maneesh spotted me, Aditya Chopra spotted me and Ladies vs. Ricky Bahl happened. I'm glad it happened because now when I am on set, I feel Why was I thinking about anything else anyway?'