Actor Neha Sharma gets candid about her journey so far. Ankita Jain reports
She walked in wearing a georgette pink mono-shoulder dress with no jewellery. Having acted in eight Hindi films, starlet Neha Sharma’s films haven’t received much appreciation but she has surely managed to get the casting calls.
She is looking at Tum Bin 2 with a lot of hope and says she doesn’t come from a film background. Talking about her first break in a Telugu film Chirutha, she said, “When I got a Telugu film, it was out of the blue. At that point of time, I didn’t realise how big it was. I really enjoyed my journey and decided acting was what I wanted to do.”
After making a successful debut in southern cinema, Neha debuted in Bollywood with Crook starring Emraan Hashmi. This, however, bombed at the box office. “Honestly, my first (southern) film was a huge hit, so I didn’t expect my first Hindi film to fail. I had seen that high in life and didn’t know that this was a possibility too. When it didn’t do well, I was in denial and disappointed. I was obviously living in a cocoon,” Neha recounted.
So when a film franchise was offered to her, she could not say no. “I watched Tum Bin when I was very young and I really liked the film. The current story carries the same essence as the earlier part. But it is nowhere a sequel. I was called for an audition by casting director Mukesh Chabbra and got through it.” Revealing about her character, she added, “I play the character of a romantic girl who believes in love and is sweet and bubbly.”
Neha, 28, said she is feeling the pressure with this film as she is still trying to prove her mettle as a performer. Both the leading men of the film—Aditya Seal and Aashim Gulati—are freshers.
When asked what works in Bollywood — looks, talent or box office success — she said, “It is important for newcomers, who don’t have a film background, to register box office success. Only then will the industry notice you. This is something which surprises me. I don’t think it is about talent or looks for us freshers.”
But she doesn’t take success or failure seriously any more. “I have done certain films and I understand it is not something that you can control. It is part of the business. No actor can just have failures and no actor can just have successes,” she elaborated. “I don’t get affected whether a film does well or it doesn’t. But you do want your films to do well as you put in a lot of hard work,” she added.
She nurtured the dream of being a fashion designer and acting just happened along the way. “I always wanted to be a designer and loved clothes and everything to do with it,” she said. Praising Deepika Padukone for her EMA awards outfit, she gushed, “She has a great body to carry such an attire. And I don’t feel it was any blunder as quoted by international publications. Rather it was a lovely dress.”