Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; July 28, 2019)

She is feisty and fearless, while he is suave and straightforward. Together, they are a likeable jodi on screen. Ahead of their next release, director Prashant Singh’s Jabariya Jodi, Parineeti Chopra and Sidharth Malhotra talk to BT about various things, including the camaraderie they share, gender inequality and why it’s the best time for actors to step out of their comfort zones. Excerpts...

The last film the two of you did together was Hasee Toh Phasee (2014). At that point, both of you were relatively new to the industry. While you have hung out socially, over the years, is it different when you start working together after a considerable gap?
Sidharth: Pari and I are friends. We hang out socially, and we’ve also been part of a dance tour. When you work together at the beginning of your career, you are in a totally different phase of life. You’re growing together, and there’s less work to distract you. You don’t even have enough exposure to understand certain things. When we met on the set of Jabariya Jodi or even before that for our workshops, we had that same energy. Pari and I have a lot in common as individuals. We’re outsiders, we live in the city alone, and we come from a similar background and culture. The comfort that comes with sharing so much is visible on camera, too. There’s definitely an advantage of working with someone you have worked with in the past.
Parineeti: Sidharth and I are buddies. And why just us? This generation of actors is more in touch with one another than the previous generation. We all hang out together. Most actors from our generation have that bro-vibe. The way this film has shaped up and the way we worked our way through it, is a testament to our friendship. It was a new world for both of us and we could sink into it comfortably. We share a brutally honest relationship. He has motivated me to do things I didn’t want to, and I could point out to him when and where he went wrong. It would have been a disaster had the equation changed. If it had, it would have been very difficult to work on this film. I can’t fake it with a co-actor. I should share enough comfort with my co-actor where I can tell him that he has messed up. Sid and I almost started out together. We were vulnerable at that time, and it is something that bonds you like nothing else. He’s still the Sid that I knew back then.

Increasingly, starting with Jabariya Jodi, both of you are trying to explore new spaces as far as selecting roles is concerned. You both are doing it at a time when your innings at the box office hasn’t witnessed a steady high...
Parineeti: Every actor wants to get out of his/her comfort zone and do something different, because the audience has so many options to choose from, and an actor doing anything substandard doesn’t work. In fact, we feel empowered to do something different because of the way the audience has been reacting to cinema lately. These are the best times for one to be an artiste, because you can have the confidence to do something different and you know that there is a fair chance of the audience lapping it up.
Sidharth: This is such an unpredictable profession that with every film, you are simply guessing and learning. Yes, out of so many people who were launched in recent times, we are among the handful of artistes who have been accepted by the audience. After that, it’s a matter of being consistent as an actor. Not every film will work and you will make mistakes. It could be the route you took, the approach you had for a role or the team, or something else. You have to constantly keep a tab on these things — on what worked in your favour and what didn’t. Unfortunately, it all becomes about the actor, but there’s a team behind every film. I can’t be solely blamed for a film’s poor collections, and I also can’t be the only reason for a film to work. If you are producing a film as an actor, which a lot of people are, you become more liable. The more you face the camera, the more you learn. The only thing I have tried doing through the years is to ensure that no two roles of mine feel similar. People just assumed that I may not be very convincing as a Bihari boy in Jabariya Jodi because I’ve never done something like this before. What they don’t realise is that I come from Delhi and I know people who speak in that lehza, and so, it couldn’t have been so difficult for me to speak like that.
Parineeti: The audience no longer cares for the box-office result of your last film. They are now assessing you on the basis of the content you present to them. There was a time when people would come to watch your film if you’ve given hits and vice versa, but today, it’s only about the content in question. People no longer lap up nonsense because the actor starring in it has had multiple hits earlier.

Doesn’t commerce get into the way when a producer decides to cast actors and invest money? Doesn’t the fate of your last film have a role in what you do next?
Parineeti: Yes, from a producer’s point of view, the math does get into the picture. But success is very difficult to measure. There are so many successful films that don’t have big numbers at the box office. I can quote an example from personal experience. I worked on the marketing of Band Baaja Baaraat (2010). While the lifetime collection of the film is not very big, it’s still a successful film. So, how does anyone measure success? A producer can decide your fee as per the last film you did and the budget he or she would allocate to your film, but you still have to put content out there, which the audience likes. Actors are the only people in this business who are not allowed to get affected by anything. We still have to go out there and do the same work, with a smile, without looking bothered. We can only thank our stars that out of a million people, who aim to get here, we’re the chosen ones and we have work to prove our worth. If we start thinking and getting affected, most of us will exit the business in just six months.

Clearly, both of you have survived many ups and downs. So, what has kept you going?
Parineeti: It’s the good that happens after a bad phase. It’s not like we were banging our heads against a wall when things were not going the way we wanted them to. The highs and lows come and go. I’ve had a phase where I sat home for eight months, returned with Meri Pyaari Bindu (2017), which didn’t work, and again sat at home and came back with Golmaal Again, which worked, and then Namaste England released. It’s a sea-saw that you’ve hopped onto and the only reason you don’t give up, is the faith that the audience puts into you each time they see the honest effort you make.
Sidharth: I was 21 when I came to Mumbai. The first thing I learnt here is that there is so much competition. The first advertisement I auditioned for had 150 other contenders. It’s daunting when you have to compete from day one. Competition is more inbuilt in people who come from outside the industry, because they are aware that they are not the only ones being considered for a job. After facing rejection early on in our careers, we’re more prepared to handle it if it were to happen again. I didn’t get every commercial I auditioned for. As years go by, you get trained in handling an emotional, creative and subjective field where one thing can mean different things to different people. I started out as an assistant behind the camera. As I went along, I learnt to deal with the ups and downs. Dukaan chalti rehni chahiye. Yes, it’s a catch-22 situation where sometimes, budgets become a constraint because of an actor’s past record, but the good part is that, all the actors today are working on all kinds of films. It’s a matter of which phase of life you are in and finding the right mix of things to do. I always take the lows as a punch in my gut, and give it my all each time I face the camera.

Coming back to Jabariya Jodi. Your film is a funny take on gender inequality, turned on its head. The practice of abducting grooms has existed for years. So, what’s your take on gender inequality that exists everywhere, including the industry you belong to?
Parineeti: At the risk of sounding like an Alice in Wonderland, I have to admit that I knew nothing about it until I stepped out in the professional world. I didn’t know that such a thing existed, because I was given more opportunities than my brothers all my life. I had more merit as a student and my parents believed in giving more opportunities to the one who merits it. So, I didn’t know that something like lesser chances and pay parity existed. It’s good that conversations around gender inequality have gained momentum at the right time, and why not address it via films? Yes, our film does address it, reversing the equation. Why should merit and personal preferences not decide things, especially when it’s to do with something like marriage? Why should anyone be forced to abduct a groom or pay dowry for it? Conversations are the beginnings of change. I’ve grown up in an equal set up and my sister Priyanka (Chopra Jonas) works with the United Nations for the girl child (UNICEF). Yes, I agree that in many parts of the country, boys are given more chances than girls but maybe, 50 years down the line, we may just be talking about inequality as a thing of the past.
Sidharth: Inequality between genders has existed for centuries. It was an outcome of the way the society functioned a few centuries ago, where men and women had different roles to play. Things are changing; while our previous generation didn’t speak about it, we are. The next generation will experience the benefits of this conversation. To me, this is progress. We are still in the middle of a transition, but by the time our kids grow up, hopefully, practices that underline gender inequality will become archaic, at work and at home.