Amrita Rao talks to D Kaushik about playing roles in contrast to her personality on screen. She explains why she does two films a year and shares initial lessons learnt in the industry
For someone who is not really shy, is bubbly and cheerful, it must be a task to come across mostly as an extraordinarily simple girl, who lowers her eyelids while talking and adds ji to whatever she says. We are talking about Amrita Rao’s role as Poonam in Vivaha. The actress has mostly played simple characters on screen, but in real life she is a complete contrast. “I might be simple in my choices but I am definitely not as simple as some of the roles that I have played on screen. In Welcome To Sajjanpur, Jolly llB and Vivaha I was portrayed as a very simple girl but lets not forget that simplicity is the most difficult to portray on screen sometimes. To play what you are not is a challenge and if through the characters that I have played so far on the camera I have made people believe that I am as simple as I am portrayed, I have done a good job,” said the actress, who is now gearing up for her next release, Prakash Jha’s Satyagraha. She plays a part of Sumitra in the film. “The film is about middle class rising against corruption and I play Sumitra, a small town, strong girl who represents common man in the film. Personally as well, I think I am very emotional and attached about every incident that’s happening in our country. Though this film is not about Anna Hazare, but what happened during the Anna Hazare movement across the country did make me emotional,” she said and shared that the film was offered to her while she was shooting for Anil Sharma’s Singh Sahib The Great. “Most of the film has been shot in Bhopal and while shooting I met a few locals and they were talking highly of Prakash Jha. I felt like texting him and telling this but then just dropped the idea. Co-incidentally three days later I received a message from Prakash Jha asking me if I would want to be a part of his film Satyagraha. There was no reason to say no to the offer,” shared the actress.
Amrita has stayed away from doing many films at a time. She says it is a conscious decision and she is happy to work this way. “While we were shooting for Main Hoo Na, Shah Rukh Khan told me that in a year 200 films will release but it is better to do only two films for which people would wait. So I have followed this suggestion seriously and from my own experience also I have learnt that if you want to give your best, you cannot do more than two films a year. At present, an actor’s job is not only to act but to promote the film massively and do many other activities simultaneously. So all this is not possible if you decide to get involved in too many projects at a time,” she said and added that since she entered the industry without any godfather she chooses her scripts carefully. “One formula I have followed throughout is that the film should atleast have one superstar factor. It can be the director or an actor. My hard work is important I would not let it go waste on any film. Second is that I would not agree to do a miniscule role in any film.”The actress says that her initial journey in Bollywood was smooth with back to back success, but it taught many lessons.
“An important one was that you cannot keep everyone happy and the other is that it is a professional world and if someone is being good to you, it is only because of some reason. The person would show you his/her true face someday,” she said and added that she wants to work with director like Dibakar Banerjee.