Nushrat Bharucha (DNA; March 24, 2018)

Nushrat Bharucha can’t stop smiling. Her last release, Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety is inching towards the Rs 100 crore mark and her phone hasn’t stopped ringing. “My life has changed drastically. I have now become an option for projects that earlier I probably wouldn’t have been considered for,” she beams. Here, she talks about the kind of roles she wants to do, directors she wants to work with, and more...

Has life changed after the super success of Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety?
Drastically! I was looking forward to connecting and working with certain producers and directors from the industry whom I have already known. Now, when I go to meet them, their first response is, ‘Aap toh star ban gayi. If I call you, will you answer the phone or someone else will?’. People are looking at me in a new light. It’s almost like, ‘We knew she was around, she did a decent job in the films that she was seen in, but now she is somebody we can depend on’. The film has done so much business — the (box office) numbers have made me a sort of dependable actor. I guess that’s why the business matters. Overall, when they set up projects, they know what will work commercially. In that respect, I have become an option for a lot more projects.

Are flooded with offers?
I have started meeting people. I am looking at doing something that I have not done before. I am considering a mix of things, maybe two-three different genres. Or I will wait for something I really like doing and do that one thing for the next one year. I am still taking my time because it’s crucial. If I take a wrong turn now, it will ruin all my hard work.

When you say you want to do something you haven’t done before, do you have anything specific in mind?
I want to be a part of Imtiaz Ali’s movies like Rockstar, Jab We Met, and Tamasha, where you are totally immersed in terms of performance and his world. His movies are romantic — the Sufi kind — with heartbreak and journey. I would also like to be part of movies like Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkara and Abhishek Chaubey’s Dedh Ishqiya, which are based in small towns. I want to explore that space. I felt Alia’s (Bhatt) characters in Udta Punjab and Highway were a great contrast to the other films that she was doing at that time. As an actor, she was exploring different sides, which is what I would like to do, too.

Are you saying you don’t want to do any more light films?
I have already made an identity and a distinctive place for myself in light-hearted romantic films. Issine mujhe naam diya hai. So, I will continue doing these kinds of films. Only because of these movies can I think of experimenting with something completely different and become a wholesome entertainer.

Kartik Aaryan, Luv Ranjan and you have become a winning team. What is the secret?
I think our stars are perfectly aligned! Kaam bhi kar rahe hai aur ek doosre ko acchi tarah se jaante bhi hai. It’s not as if we have only hits. We have done Akaash Vani, which was a flop. We have gone through lows and highs together. The most important thing for me as an actor is that I should be able to free my mind of doubts and inhibitions. And, all three of us are able to shed our inhibitions at least among ourselves and create that magic. Our minds are receptive to any creative improvisation. We work in a happy space and that is probably why we are working together repeatedly.

Luv Ranjan’s films have been accused of being misogynistic. What is your reaction?
I know what people have said about his films. But the first thing you have to see is whose story it is. Both, Pyaar Ka Punchnama (PKP) and the sequel, were from the boy’s point of view. It was about what happens after two people, who are in love, have spent time together for five-six months. It was about the bad days and not the good days. There are many love stories where everything ends happily, but this was about what happens when love goes wrong. And for the three boys, it went wrong in PKP. Secondly, it was a comedy where things are exaggerated. That is why certain comedies work the way they are. So, in the writing and performance, we did that. For me as an actor, my character was in an unreal space, it was caricaturish. The film was about three boys being stuck with three wrong girls. If you make PKP from the girl’s point of view, it would have been the other way round. The boys would have been wrong for the girls. That wouldn’t have been misogynistic.

What about Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety?
In this film, the girl is herself saying, ‘I am flawed, I am the villain and this is what I am going to do in life’. She is actually challenging the guy. It cannot be misogynistic because we haven’t shown the girl doing anything wrong. Which girl doesn’t see the bank balance of the guy she is marrying? Not only the girl, even her parents want her to marry a financially-secure guy. She is being practical to a point that ‘if I get married and come into the house, I will decide for my man and vice versa’. She doesn’t want his friend to come into that space. That girl doesn’t do any wrong to her fiancé. It’s not about whether she is right or wrong. The question is whom does the boy choose. Does he want to keep his friend or be with his girl forsaking the friendship? He chooses his friend over the girl. There is nothing misogynistic about it. But, because the first two films (PKP and PKP 2) had that flavour, it got carried to Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety.