BOMBAY TIMES (March 31, 2018)

Diana Penty, last seen in Lucknow Central (2017), has two releases this year — Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran and Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi. The actress says that while she has had just three releases over the past six years, it’s not because she is extremely choosy about her roles.

She says, “It’s more an unfortunate case of delayed releases. I just want to act — commercial, mainstream, niche or art — my choices are not defined by labels. I don’t know why people assume that I’m not interested in commercial cinema, which is strange because I began my career with a commercial film (Cocktail). My second outing (Happy Bhag Jayegi), was more mainstream than my debut. For me, the story is everything. I’m open to different kinds of roles, characters and genres.”

The actress, however, accepts that her rare offscreen appearances have something to do with her shy nature. “It’s partly true that I am not seen that often in public. Well, I’m just socially awkward, especially around people I’m not familiar with. But once you get to know me, I’m quite a chatterbox.”

Talk to Diana about the many more ‘assumptions’ doing the rounds about her — that she is not Indian, to begin with — and she laughs it off. “These are all myths. I just don’t understand where these stories originate from. My surname (Penty) is a reflection of my Parsi heritage. I have roots in Jabalpur and that’s as Indian as it can get.”